August is Organ Donor Month, but for our team, it’s actually been organ donor months plural because for several months now we’ve been working on a podcast series called A Gift of Life, taking an in-depth look at the organ and tissue donor landscape in South Africa, and introducing you to the people whose lives are affected by it.

It’s my great pleasure to finally launch the series today – throughout the next fortnight we’re going to be sharing interviews with organ recipients, a living kidney donor, a transplant surgeon, a transplant coordinator, and many more.  We’ll also look at the legal framework within which transplants happen in South Africa, and talk about strategies for improving donor numbers.

We start with an overview of what the organ donor landscape looks like in South Africa right now, so our first episode is an interview with the Organ Donor Foundation’s two executive directors, Samantha Nicholls and Jooste Vermeulen.