Ever wondered where you are going?

Today I attended a networking lunch organised by the Isabel Hospice and held at Lussmanns restaurant in Hertford.

The usual format is that the event sponsor would give a short pitch about his or her business and then all attendees would have an opportunity to mingle and make business connections.

Today was different.

It couldn’t have been more different.

Today’s sponsor was Rob Glover of The Best of Hertford website, and he spoke for maybe 15 seconds and then handed his “spot” over to a lady called T. Sandeman-Charles. It’s at this point most people’s jaws started dropping, the room was more silent than is normal for an event such as this.

T told us that two years ago she was diagnosed with two incurable lung diseases and that without a lung transplant she will die. Nobody knows when, but T knows that she doesn’t have any time to waste. T wasn’t asking us for money or pity, she made it quite clear that she wanted to die a happy lady. And what would make her happy? All T wants is for 10,000 people to sign up with the NHS organ donor register.

T then startled an already startled crowd by telling us that only 0.2% of people who die will have one or more organs transplanted, this arises because the doctors can only take organs for transplant in a very limited set of circumstances, normally traffic accident victims, but they have to have died in Intensive Care and a few other stipulations too – very few people die in this way, hence the very low figure of 0.2%.

T started a campaign called “Save 5” – whereby one person’s organs can save five other lives.  If you, your mother or child were critically ill and needed an organ you would (most likely) accept one if it came along – for that to have a better chance, more people need to sign up on the organ donor register.

Please take a trip over to T’s website and sign up via her site to the NHS organ donor site  and then just drop T an email to say you have signed up because of her campaign. When I last looked, T can take credit for 3,699 people signing up, so her target of 10,000 is still some way off, but why stop at 10,000. So devote the next couple of minutes to sign up – go on – do it now.

After you’ve done that, ask your family to do the same, then your friends. “Like” T’s facebook fan page “Save5” and follow her on Twitter @Save5Lives.