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Tissue and eye services


Give someone a new lease of life

The power to reconstruct

Donated tissue, such as skin, bones and eyes, can save or dramatically improve the lives of many people suffering from illness or injury. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and their families, we collect tissue from thousands of living and deceased donors every year. Annually, this provides around 8,500 life-changing implants for 2,600 patients.

Why donate tissue?

Thanks to our donors and their families, we’re able to provide tissue to repair or rebuild the bodies, faces and lives of severely injured people.

Our specialist tissue donation nurses are responsible for the coordination of tissue donation after death. They provide support and assistance to newly bereaved families, and ensure tissues are donated in accordance with the wishes of our donors and their loved ones.

More about tissue donation

What can I donate?

Registering to be a tissue donor is quick and easy.

You can choose to donate tissue, such as skin, bone, tendons, eyes, heart valves and arteries after your death. Or, you can donate some tissue when you’re alive, for example, removed bone following a hip replacement.

Mothers who have had their babies safely delivered by elective caesarean section can donate amniotic membrane.

More about what you can donate

Did you know?

You can donate bone removed after a hip replacement. We work with 75 hospitals to run this program, and bank bone from more than 3,000 living donors.

Our role

We operate the UK's largest tissue bank and are the largest not-for-profit organisation supplying the NHS with human tissue for transplant. Our role is to co-ordinate, recover, process, bank and supply human tissue grafts for use in surgery within the NHS and independent hospitals in the UK.

We also provide support services to other tissue banks. Our National Referral Centre gains consent to donate from over 2,500 eye only donors per year, which is more than half of all eye donors in the UK.

Tissue and Eye Services

Human tissue you can trust

We offer a wide range of tissue grafts for use by various surgical specialities including orthopaedics, burns, cardiology and ophthalmics.

Our unique service controls the whole supply chain of tissue from donor referral to surgery. This lets us guarantee the highest safety and quality standards. Thus minimising risk to patients.

Products

Heart valve transplants saved Alex’s life

Alex was born with a rare heart disease, which meant he had no pulmonary valve. Alex needed two heart valve transplants before he was 2 years old to survive.

Read Alex's story

You're in safe hands

All procedures are designed to comply with:


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