The Student
Will Pope is a second year Classical Civilisation student at the University of Bristol. Throughout his first year, Will was a member of the Students’ Union comedy society Revunions, sang in a jazz band, cycled all over Bristol and rowed. In the summer of 2012 while completing the Mongol Rally, Will fell terribly ill and was rushed back home to be admitted the Harefield Hospital. As a result of a virus he contracted at 16, Will’s heart, which had always caused him difficulty, needed a transplant.
In spite of being prioritised on the Urgent List, Will spent 122 days in hospital waiting for a donated heart and in November he appeared on ITV’s Tonight programme in an episode entitled ‘Waiting for a Heart’ in which he said he had come to terms with the likely prospect of a heart not being found in time. Thankfully, on New Year’s Eve Will’s family were told that a heart had been found which has since been transplanted. Though Will’s journey is far from over, he is recovering well and will be looking forward to returning to University soon.
A far more detailed account of Will’s experience can be found in this moving article by his friend Ben Stamp
http://www.cherwell.org/lifestyle/features/2013/03/01/this-is-the-way-i-live-now
and in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oA31xYbJVk
WillPower
I’m nominating Will Pope as Student of the Year not because of the enormous personal hurdles that he has overcome in the last year, nor for the strength and integrity that he and his family have shown throughout their ordeal, but, rather, because his struggle has led to the WillPower campaign: A campaign to increase the number of organ donors in the UK.
Thousands of people die in our hospitals every year waiting for an organ transplant. Despite surveys suggesting 90% of people feel happy with the concept of organ donation, only 30% of our population have signed the organ donors’ register.
The WillPower team, of which many are students, has embarked on a drive to increase the number of organ donors through a variety of methods including social media groups, fundraising social events and pictures of hundreds of people holding a WillPower heart (pictures can be found on the links below). Appearing firstly in student, then the national press the campaign has been seen by people all over the country.
Thanks to the WillPower campaign the number of registrations in the UK has doubled in a year. I have since signed the organ donor register myself, as have so many other students, officers and staff in Bristol.
Will Pope is a student whom we as a movement should be proud to call our own. He is intelligent, athletic, funny and kind. He is a rounded individual of the sort our universities and colleges are producing everyday. In the last year he has endured great suffering and faced tremendous adversity: but he has not despaired. In light of his perseverance a campaign has succeeded in getting over 70,000 more people (students and non-students alike) to donate their organs when they die. The campaign has spread across the whole country and has been led by students; it is through student media the word has spread and on campuses and precincts the uptake strongest.
I hope that in nominating Will, we can congratulate an outstanding individual, recognise a student campaign that is benefiting an enormous number of people and, as Will himself would no doubt want most, draw further attention to the need for more organ donors.
http://willpope.co.uk/
Sign up to be an organ donor here
http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/
Further news articles:
http://durham.tab.co.uk/2013/01/23/every-breath-you-take/
http://bristol.tab.co.uk/2012/11/28/why-you-should-sign-the-organ-donor-register/
http://www.epigram.org.uk/2012/12/editorial-ticking-off-lifes-big-to-do-list/
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/boy-desperate-heart-transplant/story-17384577-detail/story.html#axzz2SDxIhX6Q
http://cambridge.tab.co.uk/2012/11/23/real-world-problems/
http://cambridge.tab.co.uk/2013/02/11/have-a-heart/
