The NHS teaming up with Tinder may seem like a random partnership, but it’s actually for a very good cause. The app is being used to encourage people to sign up to the NHS organ donor register over the next few weeks, because too few young people are joining the campaign.
There are just under 7,000 people on the UK transplant waiting list, and more than 6,000 people have died waiting for a transplant in the last decade.
People who swipe on some of the pictures on the dating app will be encouraged to sign up to the organ donor register list – and high-profile members like Jaimie Laing, Emmerdale’s Gemma Oaten and Olympic gold medallist Jade Jones will have a ‘The Wait’ logo on their profiles to spread awareness of the campaign.
If you swipe right on these profiles, you’ll recieve a message saying, ‘If only it was that easy for those in need of a life-saving organ to find a match.’
Hermione Way, Tinder’s head of European communications, says, ‘Tinder users regularly make the decision to swipe left or right wondering whether someone may be the person they are looking for. While those swiping decisions are important and could be the first step to a successful relationship, we hope that the NHS profiles featuring Jamie, Jade and Gemma will encourage people to make and act upon a different decision, too – to sign up as an organ donor.’
Sally Johnson, director of Organ Donation and Transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant, adds, ‘While a third of the UK population have registered their intention to donate on the NHS Organ Donor Register, millions more support donation but haven’t taken the final step to sign up... Joining the register takes only a couple of minutes – about the same amount of time as a few swipes on Tinder.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.