NATIONAL Kidney Foundation Malaysia CEO Khor Xin Yun said that many more people pledging their organs gave “new hope” to patients in need and on a long waiting list.

She hailed the Health Ministry’s introduction of the MySejahtera feature that would allow Malaysians to pledge organs as a “game changer”. 

“This is definitely a good start to make organ pledging more accessible to all Malaysians via digital access because MySejahtera is one of the most downloaded apps in the country,” Khor told The Malaysian Insight. 

“Most people don’t even know where to sign up as an organ donor. 

“Learning about organ donation is one thing but giving people the convenience to straightaway access MySejahtera and pledge their organs is definitely a game changer for us.” 

According to the Health Ministry, 4,500 Malaysians have pledged their organs as of September 12, nearly a week after the feature was introduced on MySejahtera.

“On average, there are over 700 new organ donors every day since the new feature was introduced,” the Health Ministry tweeted. 

The target is 1,000 pledges every day. 

Khor praised Malaysians for stepping forward to help. 

“We have been championing organ pledging and organ donation all this while and most of the time, we reach the community via exhibitions, roadshows, and awareness activities on the ground. 

“But nothing compares to something like digital access these days.” 

To register as an organ donor, one needs to click on the “Organ Donor Pledge” button on the MySejahtera dashboard. 

Donors are allowed to cancel their registration anytime. 

According to the National Transplant Resources Centre, there have been 517,758 registered organ donors since 1997. 

More than 10,000 Malaysians are on the organ transplant waiting list. 

Although the increase in organ donors was encouraging, Khor said civil society groups needed to do more to educate people on the benefits of organ donation. 

She said they also faced the task of addressing misinformation about organ donation. 

“I believe NGOs like ours or even some religious bodies can also help to address these misconceptions to help improve the rate of organ pledges in the country,” she said. 

Khor said the foundation was creating awareness about living donors for kidney transplant through its Code Life programme. 

“It is an awareness programme in which we work closely with nephrologists as well as the patients, their caregivers as well as healthcare professionals,” she said. 

Khor said patients who had successfully completed living donor transplants shared their testimonies in a forum. 

“Waiting for the other route of organ donation can take quite a long time. For kidneys, we at least have the option of living donors.” – September 17, 2022.