A record number of more than seventy stars from the worlds of sport, music, film, theatre, science, and media joined the 11 ^th Run for New Life that was organised on Sunday armound Górczewska Park’s amphitheatre in Warsaw’s Bemowo district. However, as the Run’s director Mr Arkadiusz Pilarz said, it wasn’t about beating records, but about educating people and promoting actions that save health and life.

“People after organ transplants from all over Poland, from the Polish Association of Sport after Transplants, have come here to promote Polish organ transplantation,” Mr Pilarz said. He also pointed out that this way such people are showing everyone that they remain active and that they “received a second life and are using it to the full.”

To him “organ transplantation that saves lives” is the most important message of this regularly organised event, as well as an idea that draws and unifies people, new organisations, and the media.

“We are very happy that new partners are joining us. Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych is one such new partner and we are very thankful for their help. Without them there would have been no Runs for New Life. We are also joined by new media, (…) twenty-six media relays. It’s incredible,” said Mr Pilarz.

The president of the board of PWPW S.A., Mr Piotr Woyciechowski, said that his company supports “all initiatives that serve Poland and Poles,” and he also added that the Run for New Life subscribes to the mission of Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych in whose walls many Poles died and gave their lives for the wounded during the Warsaw Uprising. He also expressed hope that during the coming years PWPW S.A. will remain the event’s main partner in order to support those values that serve human life and health.

“This concept is almost evangelical, it is a kind of exemplification of loving thy neighbour through actual giving of oneself,” said Piotr Woyciechowski. He also expressed his recognition for the event’s organisers, and their passion for “encouraging others and making them realise what organ transplantation is, what it servers, and what its risks are or are not.”

Przemysław Saleta, who is the initiator and ambassador of the Run for New Life, admitted that to him it is a very important and “actually personal thing”. He explained that ever since he had given his kidney to his daughter Nicola ten years previously, he had become involved in organ transplantation and had realised what its problems are. He had decided then to compare it to sport, because it is associate with health.

“We are showing that people, irrespective of whether they are donors or recipients, live normally, they can do sports, and we are trying to increase the society’s awareness of this issue, because it’s extremely important not to be afraid of helping our loved ones and strangers,” Saleta said.

The 11 ^th Run for New Life was accompanied by numerous activities aimed at building social approval for organ transplantation, popularising donor cards, and promoting voluntary organ donation.

For six years now, in Wisła and in Warsaw these ideas have been promoted twice a year by actors, musicians, artists, sportsmen, and representatives of the scientific community. They meet during a unique, relay Nordic walking march with people from the Polish Association of Sport after Transplants. Since the beginning of this initiative the organisers of the Run for New Life have been using professional and promotional assistance of professor Andrzej Chmura from the department of general and transplantation surgery of the Child Jesus Clinical Hospital in Warsaw.

The data of the “Poltransplant” Transplantation Organisation and Coordination Centre show that in July 2017 174 organs from dead donors were transplanted across all transplantations centres in Poland. 121 patients received new kidneys, 4 patients received a kidney and the pancreas, 37 patients received the liver, 9 received the heart, and 3 received a lung. There were also 4 transplantations from living donors: 3 people received a new kidney, and one a piece of the liver.

As at the end of July 2017 the National List of Persons Awaiting Organ Transplant featured 1703 severely ill people with terminal organ insufficiency for whom organ transplant is the only chance for recovery, and frequently the only chance for life. The most, 1030 patients are waiting for a new kidney. 403 people require a new heart.

Material created in collaboration with PWPW S.A.

Source: PAP Press Centre