PROLONG LIFE on Belgrade Marathon

The PROLONG LIFE message will be sent out from the 29^th Belgrade Marathon this year, with the aim of raising awareness of the public on the importance of organ donation and transplantation. Hemofarm Foundation will have its PROLONG LIFE stand in front of the Moskva Hotel on Terazije, where the marathon participants and all interested onlookers will have an opportunity to sign donor cards and learn everything about organ donation and transplantation.

‘This year, too, the Belgrade Marathon and Hemofarm Foundation share the same values – support to life and healthy society’, said Suzana Đorđević, Director of Hemofarm Foundation on the eve of the Belgrade Marathon, and added that at the last year’s Belgrade Marathon, Hemofarm Foundation encouraged the participants and visitors to support the reconstruction of the Boško Buha children’s theatre by sending their contributions via SMSs. ‘This year, Hemofarm Foundation has, as a partner of the Ministry of Health, focused its activities on the aid and support to the persons who have been waiting for organ transplantations for years‘, stated Director of Hemofarm Foundation and added that participation on 29^th Belgrade Marathon is one of the many activities directed at raising awareness of this important social topic with the purpose of saving human lives.

As a partner of the Ministry of Health, Hemofarm Foundation has been carrying out the intensive campaign for raising awareness of citizens and breaking taboos regarding the organ donation for the second year in a row.

‘This is a topic of national importance and our friends from the Belgrade Marathon have recognised this. With the aid of our partners – doctors from the Biomedicine Administration, we are going to talk to all the interested people at the Belgrade Marathon about the importance of transplantation and donation and we are going to answer all the questions regarding this topic’, added Suzana Đorđević, and invited all the visitors to visit the PROLONG LIFE stand.

In spite of the well-trained doctors and the available facilities for performing the most complex transplantations of heart and kidney, Serbia lacks donors. Last year, there were 32 kidney, 7 liver and 5 heart transplantations performed at the KBC /Clinical Centre/, but since the beginning of this year there was none. In order to provide a new organ for everyone who is now waiting for one, there should be 10 donors in one million inhabitants. Serbia now has 3 donors per one million, and only 10 percent of people waiting receive an organ and a chance for a new life.