Young heroes show: Experience organ donation up close in Würzburg!

The exhibition “My Story” will be presented at the Würzburg University Hospital (UKW) until January 7, 2025. This event, which has been running since December 2, 2024, highlights personal stories of young organ transplant recipients and their experiences with donor organs. Up to 10% of transplants in Germany take place in children under the age of 15, often due to congenital organ defects.

The exhibition includes around 20 display walls in the main corridor of the UKW Center for Operative Medicine. Accompanying this are portrait photos by the photographer Micha Neugebauer from Hanover, which visually support the text contributions. The exhibition was organized by KiO Youth, the junior team of the Kinderhilfe Organtransplantation – Athletes for Organ Donation association. V. (KiO), whose work provides financial and psychosocial support for families with a child with an organ disease.

Award for KiO Youth

In addition, KiO Youth was recently awarded the Organ Donation Prize 2023, as the Presseportal.de reported. The prize was presented on November 29, 2023 at the Federal Ministry of Health and was endowed with 5,000 euros. The prize was awarded by the Parliamentary State Secretary Sabine Dittmar (Member of the Bundestag). KiO Youth, which consists of around 20 young people who have had organ transplants, aims to educate about organ donation and transplantation in schools, universities and social media.

The About Life Foundation has been awarding the organ donation prize since 2021 and was created from the Foundation For Life of the German Organ Transplantation Foundation (DSO). The foundation's managing director, Dr. Jorit Ness, emphasized the importance of the young generation for changes in the area of ​​organ donation. KiO Youth also formulated three central demands on politicians in a “Berlin Declaration”: the introduction of the objection solution, the implementation of the organ donation register and mandatory education about organ donation in schools.

The KiO association supports around 100 families with organ transplanted children every year and promotes the participation of young organ donors aged 18 and over.