More Than You Think: Body Parts You Can Donate
Giving a part of yourself is one of the most generous things you can do. If you’ve ever wondered just how much of your body you can put to good use, the answer is more than you might think.
From the tiniest cells in your blood to the hair on your head, each part can play a role in saving lives or helping others. Whether you’re interested in helping someone right now or after you’ve gone, there’s a way to make your body count for something truly special.
The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers looks at leftover body parts that still hang around like wisdom teeth, goosebumps and hiccups! This illustrated tour is the perfect book to engage children in science and evolution.
Donate blood, plasma and stem cells
Every day, hospitals need blood for surgeries, emergencies, and chronic illnesses. Giving blood is quick and safe, and one donation can help up to three people.
You can donate whole blood, but sometimes doctors only need red cells, plasma, or platelets. Giving blood keeps supplies steady and helps save lives, especially for people with rare blood types or those facing serious illness.
Read more on donating blood, plasma and stem cells.
Donate bone marrow (for blood cancer patients)
Bone marrow is spongy tissue found inside bones, and it makes blood cells. People fighting blood cancers or certain serious conditions might need a bone marrow transplant to survive.
Anyone healthy can join the bone marrow register, and if your tissue type matches a patient, you could be asked to donate. Collection is now a much simpler procedure than in the past, often done from blood rather than bone. Learn more on bone marrow donation.
Donate your body (for medical research)
Body donation! is a great way to help reduce animal testing. Cadavers are needed to find cures for disease (healthy bodies too as you need a healthy brain to compare with one from someone who died of dementia).
Usually religious views are respected and some offer prosthetics for open caskets. Read of reasons only to give to humane medical research.
Donate organs (kidneys, liver, heart, lung, pancreas)
Organ donation is a huge gift, either during life or after death. You can donate a kidney while alive, as we have two, and most people do well with just one. In just 2 minutes, you could save 9 lives!
Living liver donation is also possible, as the liver can grow back. After death, you can give your kidneys, heart, lungs, pancreas, and more, giving life to several people waiting for transplants.
Some of the body parts used in organ donation are:
- Doctors use donated skin to treat patients with burns or severe injuries. Skin donation helps cover wounds, prevent infection and ease pain while natural healing takes place.
- Orthopaedic surgeons use donor bone, tendons and cartilage for complex joint repairs or to replace bone lost to cancer or injury. These tissues help patients heal and regain movement.
- Donated blood vessels and heart valves help people (including children) with serious heart problems. This type of donation makes major heart and vascular surgery possible.
- Corneas are the clear layers at the front of your eyes that help you see. Donating your corneas restores sight for people with damaged or diseased eyes (people with glasses can still donate).
Comedian Paul Kerensa (who co-wrote comedy series Miranda) is the proud recipient of the cornea of a 65-year old woman, to whom he is very thankful. He says he wears his ‘hand-me-down cornea’ with pride.
Donate breast milk (for preemie babies)
Breast milk. Usually produced on supply and demand (so you won’t run out for your own baby), this is (like blood) screened, then used to save the lives of preemies (premature babies who often have delicate guts).
If a mother is unable to breastfeed, the next best thing is the breastmilk of another woman. You can freeze it in silicone breast milk trays, until collection. Read more on breastfeeding benefits.
How donated toenails can save rhinos!
Did you know that boffins are now creating DNA-identical rhino horns made from donated human toenails?! This sounds daft, but it’s possibly going to stop rhinos going extinct.
Because idiots who pay thousands of dollars for horn are not going to do it, if the market is flooded with horns made from toenails!
Donate hair to make wigs for children with hair loss
You can imagine it’s stressful for an adult to go through alopecia. But for a child it can be devastating, or of course some children lose hair temporarily if going through chemotherapy treatment.
Little Princess Trust is a charity that makes quality wigs for children, from donated ponytails, if people are having long hair cut off. Rather than just be swept away and binned, this hair can be used to make child-specific wigs, so they can feel a bit better and fit in with their friends.
The site has full info on how how to ask your hairdresser to keep the hair, and a few rules. Like no pink or grey hair!
Many salons offer free haircuts if you are donating to the charities (including Supercuts). So it’s a great way to lop your locks off for nothing, and help children at the same time!
You can also donate hair extensions to Little Lady Locks.
How to donate hair to children with hair loss
There are a few rules here, as charities are quite strict on how to donate hair. Obviously you can’t have pink or grey hair to donate!
- Hair must be at least 10 inches (25cm) long, ideally longer than 12 inches, as there is demand for long hair wigs.
- Hair must be clean, healthy and free from split ends.
- All natural colours are accepted except grey.
- Wash your hair thoroughly but rinse out conditioner and styliing products. Ensure hair is dry to avoid mouldy in transit.
- Secure into a ponytail with plastic-free hair ties at both ends, and place another in the middle to keep it secure. Ask your hair stylist to cut above the highest hairband, this keeps the strands aligned.
- Place the dry banded ponytail in a cardboard or heavy paper envelope (no plastic) and print off the necessary forms, then weight at the post office before sending off to your new recipient!
Quality wigs for adults with alopecia
Amber Jean makes ethical (very expensive) wigs from hair that is donated in rituals in Asia (as opposed to some brands that literally chop off the hair of passing women, against their will). Gail Porter is an ambassador for the brand.
