Readers of The Sentinel in Stoke have been hailed as life savers after more than 1,000 signed up to the national donor register following a campaign in the paper.

A total of 1,006 readers have now volunteered to become donors as part of the paper’s Be Remembered For Life initiative.

The campaign was launched in response to figures which showed North Staffordshire had one of the lowest sign-up rates to the register in the country.

Only 15 per cent of people in the region were on the register before the campaign began, in contrast to the national average of more than 18 per cent.

Currently, more than 7,000 people across the country are waiting for a transplant, 57 of whom are in North Staffordshire.

Assistant editor Martin Tideswell said: “We have had a superb response from readers. As they always do, the people of North Staffordshire and South Cheshire have rallied behind another worthy cause.

“It will be many months before we are able to quantify the success of the campaign but it was wonderful to break the 1,000 mark and tremendous that so many of the area’s large employers have backed the campaign and e-mailed their employees.”

The Sentinel’s Nick McDermott said: “It’s been a really well executed campaign – we’ve had more than half a dozen human interest pieces about transplants.”

The initiative has also received the support of Stoke mayor Mike Wolfe.

He said: “I am a big supporter of the campaign and I’m delighted the city council has teamed up with The Sentinel to take part in the e-mail campaign and give our employees and easy way to sign up.”

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