Donor families are being sought to help set up a new support network to assist grieving relatives on the Island.

The Bermuda Organ and Tissue Donor Association has been officially formed for a year now and is in the throes of receiving charitable status, but it is also looking to expand the services it provides to the public.

Association member and medical social worker Sharika Thomas said there was no comprehensive register in Bermuda of those families who had lost a loved one and donated their organs and tissues to people in need. So, she said she was appealing for donor families interested in forming a support network to get in touch with her, so the proposal could be further developed.

The aim of the group, she said, would be for it to meet at regular intervals and offer support, advice, guidance and experience to other members, and any new donor families that may arise in the future.

However, she said it would be up to the group members to decide how the group would work and what the parameters would be. Ms Thomas said she had been given a short list of known donor families in Bermuda by the New England Organ Bank, and had made contact with them, but she said she had received a poor response and felt sure there were more people out there that she needed to reach.

"The intention is to gather these families together, but I don't have a mandate as such as to what the group will do because I want it to come from them," said Ms Thomas.

"I want them to come up with the goals for what they will do, how many times they will meet and so on. It may be that they think group therapy would work, or individual therapy.

"The main thing is that they are there to share experiences and offer guidance on how they dealt with their personal situations. There is nothing at the moment for families who find themselves as donor families after having lost a loved one, and we feel this would help."

Group member and emergency and ICU nurse Brad Kleinig said the Bermuda Organ and Tissue Donor Association was beginning to move along, and was now just waiting to hear if it had received charitable status.

But he said the group had also been approached by the National Bone Marrow Programme, to see if they could incorporate their efforts, which it was exploring, and he said the group was also looking at designing and printing its own donor cards to fall in line with the group's new logo.

Mr. Kleinig said: "We are growing slowly in a number of ways, and we are in the process of getting quotes for formulating our own donor cards, instead of using New England cards, but we are looking for sponsorship for that.

"However, we are always available to go into schools, organisations and workplaces to talk to people about what organ and tissue donation is all about, and what the group is about. If anyone wants education, they only have to contact the ICU unit and we can arrange to have presentations, and we can even tie it in with health screenings."

Other proposals being worked on by the group is a donor family benefit week in November, setting up a new website and creating a remembrance quilt, where the names of every Bermudian organ donor can be embroidered and put on display. But he said in order for everything to be done properly, it had to be a slow process, so the group was taking each stage one step at a time.

Anyone donor families interested in being part of the support network, or interested in joining the association, should contact Ms Thomas on 239-2037, extension 1480.

Any businesses interested in offering sponsorship for the donor cards should call Mr. Kleinig in the intensive care unit at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on 236-2345.