Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn. -(Mr. Frank Roy.)

I thank Mr. Speaker for allowing me to speak on this topic in the Adjournment debate tonight, and I welcome the Minister from the Department of Health to her place. I declare an interest as a trustee of the Jeanette Crizzle Trust, which will feature regularly in tonight's debate.

The executive summary of my remarks is that the NHS Blood and Transplant's Give and Let Live donor education programme is a wonderful scheme, and I praise the Government for introducing it. The problem is that only 7 per cent. of schools are involved in it, and I urge the Government to do far more to promote the scheme among schools.

The longer version of my speech now follows. The Jeanette Crizzle Trust is a research organisation that has been set up to measure the success of that education programme and to establish the degree of public awareness of blood, organ, bone marrow and tissue donation. It aims to achieve those ends by conducting a series of research projects that are likely to take place over many years, including independent tracking research. The trust's aim is not to promote blood, tissue, bone marrow and organ donation itself, but to monitor the success of the Government's Give and Let Live donor education programme.

That all started in October 2005, when Mrs. Jeanette Crizzle, who was a resident of Kettering, was very sadly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. This was obviously very tragic news for her and her wonderful family: her husband Adam and her two teenage children, Emily and Nicholas. Jeanette was an English teacher at Bedford preparatory school, and she had been in the teaching profession for the best part of 30 years. In the fight to combat her condition, there was a desperate need to find a suitable donor who would enable her to undergo a bone marrow transplant. The complication in Jeanette's case was that she came from a mixed Mediterranean and English background; her mother was Greek and her father was half Italian and half English, so Jeanette was 75 per cent. Mediterranean and 25 per cent. English. It was extremely difficult to find a suitable bone marrow donor to match her heritage; in fact, it proved impossible. Very sadly, Jeanette died in October 2006.

When the Crizzle family were advised in January 2006 that it was unlikely that a suitable bone marrow donor would be found, Jeanette's husband Adam decided to give up his job, not only to care for her but to launch an international campaign to try to find a suitable donor. He started with e-mails and internet activity among his friends and acquaintances. Bedford preparatory school, where Jeanette worked, swung in behind the campaign and mobile clinics were established in Bedford, Kettering and elsewhere to try to encourage people of Mediterranean origin to become bone marrow donors. An extensive media campaign was launched and achieved terrific coverage not only in the regional media but further afield. Initiatives included publicity on London Greek Radio and attempts to tap into communities in Greece, Italy, the United States and Australia, all in a desperate search for a suitable donor. It was a remarkable effort, reflecting Adam's positive philosophy about the dilemma in which he and his family found themselves.

The highlight of the campaign was a meeting at the Department of Health with Ms Winterton, then a Health Minister, in April 2006. At that meeting, Adam presented a report to the Minister to encourage the Government to undertake an initiative to promote the benefits of bone marrow donation in schools. The Department decided to take up the initiative, as it was in line with some of the thinking that it had been developing. The Government's positive response was confirmed in a letter from the Minister in May, and in June Adam was invited to an important meeting with the NHS Blood and Transplant service, to plan the details of how such an education initiative could be launched. That was the first of a series of many meetings that Adam has had with the service.

The important part of Adam's initiative and any debate about bone marrow donation relates to the general misconception among the population at large about how easy it is to become a bone marrow donor. Following Jeanette's leukaemia diagnosis in October 2005, it became obvious to Adam that there is a terrible misunderstanding of what is involved in being such a donor. Most people assume that it involves a major operation; in fact, it can be no different to giving blood, except that it lasts rather longer. No discomfort or pain is involved at all. I have to say to anyone thinking of becoming a donor, but put off by the thought of the procedures that they might need to go through, that it is a lot easier than most people think. If the general UK population understood that point, far more people would come forward to be donors in the first place.

That was confirmed by an exercise conducted at a school in Bedford by Mike Mallalieu, head of science, who, with Adam, undertook a presentation and two questionnaires for sixth formers at the school. Before that exercise in 2006, the first questionnaire found that 25 per cent. of the students were prepared to be a donor, and 65 per cent. were not too sure. After the presentation, when it had been made clear how easy donation was, 89 per cent. said that they were prepared to be bone marrow donors, and only 3 per cent. were not sure. Those findings so impressed the Department of Health that it has decided to take up Adam's initiative.

The statistics are startling. Most people on bone marrow registers are never required to donate their marrow at all. For example, of the 371,000 people on the Anthony Nolan Trust register, only about 300 a year are called to be donors. Indeed, there are some 273,000 donors on the British bone marrow register, which is only 1.2 per cent. of the 23 million people in this country aged between 18 and 44 who would be eligible to donate.

In January 2007, I was delighted to be able to raise this matter with the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at Prime Minister's questions. I asked him:

"Will the Prime Minister confirm to the House his Government's commitment to launch a donation awareness campaign in all secondary schools in September?"

He replied:

"We are indeed developing an education pack for schools to promote donation among 14 to 16-year-olds, and that pack will be offered to every school from this September onwards. In addition, we are looking at how we can build up our organ donation levels to those of other European countries. A taskforce is looking at recommendations and it will report shortly. I very much hope that that will align our thinking with that of the voluntary organisation that the hon. Gentleman has just mentioned. This is a serious question, particularly for people who suffer from leukaemia, as Mrs. Crizzle did; there is a real opportunity to make a difference in saving lives if we can extend the organ donation range."-[ Hansard, 24 January 2007; Vol. 455, c. 1418.]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on this campaign, which is very well known in north Northamptonshire. I well remember the meeting with the Minister that he mentioned. Does he share my concern that this problem also affects the Asian population, where, again, there is a lack of donors? Unfortunately, that has affected at least one person in my constituency.

I am most grateful for that helpful intervention by my hon. Friend, who is absolutely right. There are two fundamental issues: first, a shortage of donors, full stop; and secondly, a particular shortage of donors where specific ethnicity is involved.

That brings me to the launch, in September 2007, of the education programme aimed at promoting awareness of bone marrow, blood and organ donation among 14 to 16-year-old pupils in state and independent secondary schools across the UK. The programme was recommended for use in the following classes: personal, social and health education, economics, citizenship, science, and information and communication technologies; it was later extended to religious education. The resource comprised a teachers' pack and a website and includes lesson plans, activity sheets, real-life stories, debating topics, games, films and other activities. I believe that the website has won an award because it is so good.

In 2008, the Jeanette Crizzle Trust commissioned BJS Research Ltd, an independent market research company, to conduct research to assess the level of awareness of the scheme among schools. The research found that only 3 per cent. of schools had used the resource in the first year, but the vast majority said that they were likely to use it in the future. However, 77 per cent. were not aware of it. In September 2008, I am pleased to say, the Secretaries of State for Health and for Children, Schools and Families wrote a letter to head teachers in all secondary schools in England promoting the scheme. That was a wonderful initiative.

In March 2009, six months after the letter from the Secretaries of State had been sent out, the Jeanette Crizzle Trust conducted research that found that among 250 schools surveyed, 28 per cent. were aware of the letter, and 4 per cent. had a vague memory of it, but 68 per cent. had no recollection at all, or no record of its ever having been received. Of the 28 per cent. who confirmed that they had received the letter, 100 per cent. told the trust that it was not the intention of the school to implement the Give and Let Live resource in the foreseeable future. That is of course extremely disappointing given the personal intervention by the Secretaries of State.

The Jeanette Crizzle Trust has commissioned research through annual reports in 2008 and 2009, as well as the specific piece of research following the letter sent out by the Secretaries of State. The latest research shows that of 512 schools surveyed, only 22 per cent. of teachers are aware of the programme, which is no change on the first year. Some 18 per cent. said that they had received the pack, which is more than the 11 per cent. in the first year, but only 7 per cent. said that they had used the resource. That is hugely disappointing given the award-winning nature of the programme that the Government put together. In October, the Minister of State, Department of Health, Gillian Merron, wrote to Mr. Crizzle to say that as far as the Department was concerned, 68 per cent. of secondary school teachers had ordered the pack. That may or may not be true, but the Jeanette Crizzle Trust's research suggested that only 7 per cent. were actually using the programme.

The Department of Health recognises the economic case for increased organ donation, and I am sure that we will hear in a minute of the wonderful things that it is doing to promote it across the country, not least because transplantation could save the NHS something like £150 million a year by reducing dialysis costs. In the correspondence with Mr. Crizzle, the Minister of State said:

"That is why we are fully supportive of NHSBT's work"- the work of NHS Blood and Transplant-

"to drive up donation rates, and we are putting additional investment into the infrastructure for organ donation."

However, Mr. Crizzle and the trust are concerned that the Department is relying too much on the figure of 68 per cent. of schools having ordered the pack. In a letter to the Minister of State last month, he wrote that

"this 68 per cent. is just stating how many teachers have ordered the programme. It does not state how many intend to use it."

The Government say that 33 per cent. of teachers have taught the programme using the resource, but Mr. Crizzle pointed out that that

"is based upon a survey of 86 teachers...which is not truly representative of the number of UK schools and therefore the level of accuracy is questionable. I should point out that our annual surveys are based upon a national sample of 500 schools and are therefore significantly more statistically robust."

In the research conducted to see whether schools had received the letter from the two Secretaries of State, head teachers unanimously said that they had no intention of launching the programme and, according to Mr. Crizzle, gave the following reasons:

"There are other Government directives which have a higher priority...There is no additional funding for the Give and Let Live resource...Limited resources within the school preventing them including the Give and Let Live pack", and finally:

"They will find it difficult to fit everything into the timetable."

Mr. Crizzle's letter concluded:

"Taking the above into account, it is fair and reasonable to suggest that our August 2009 survey, which showed that just 7 per cent. of UK schools have accepted the programme, is accurate."

I conclude where I started, by congratulating the Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families on getting the scheme under way. It is a wonderful programme. But I ask them to please, please put far more emphasis on promoting it. We need to get every school in the land involved, so that we can encourage more donors to come forward. It is a wonderful idea, and I ask Her Majesty's Government to promote it far more.

I start by thanking Mr. Hollobone for securing the debate and Mr. Bone for his important intervention. I recognise the admirable work of the hon. Member for Kettering in supporting Adam Crizzle, who, as he described, has campaigned tirelessly to raise young people's awareness of donation since the very sad death of his wife Jeanette. I was sad to hear of her having died in such unfortunate and tragic circumstances, having given so much to her community as a teacher.

All forms of donation are important, which makes the role of NHSBT, as the special health authority responsible for ensuring the supply of blood, organs, stem cells and tissue for patients, so crucial. It saves lives every single day, and we should all be thankful for it. NHSBT needs to collect 7,000 units of blood every day to ensure that patients have access to life-saving blood and products when they are needed. However, in order to secure the blood supply to hospitals and patients, 350,000 new blood donors must be recruited every year to replace those who have had to stop donating. Thanks to the efforts of the National Blood Service and the altruism of existing donors, there has not been a shortage of blood in the UK for many years.

The Government are proud of the support we provide to NHSBT, and committed to continuing that in future years. That includes initiatives such as the Give and Let Live campaign, to which the hon. Member for Kettering referred. Designed to raise awareness among young people of the importance of donating, Give and Let Live is an award-winning educational resource pack produced by NHSBT. Developed to be delivered by teachers as part of personal health and social education, science studies or religious education, it is aimed at 14 to 16-year-olds. Since its launch in September 2007, it has been made available to 6,000 state and independent schools across the UK.

The independent evaluation of that programme showed that, as of September 2009, 68 per cent. of secondary schools have ordered the pack. Promoting altruistic donation to young people, who will be the donors of tomorrow, is not just good for patients who need transplants but exceptionally good for our society.

Other initiatives are being considered. My Department and the Department for Children, Schools and Families are considering how best to raise awareness of the various forms of donation among children and young people. Another education programme, Register and Be a Lifesaver, which has worked with the Give and Let Live campaign, has just completed a successful pilot phase. Delivered in partnership with the Anthony Nolan Trust, a key third-sector partner in so much of this work, the programme was set up following a campaign by the journalist Adrian Sudbury, who died of leukaemia and used the last months of his life to campaign for greater awareness of donation. It targets 16 to 18-year-olds and seeks to empower young people to make their own decisions on becoming a donor.

However, it is not always easy to meet the needs of everyone and provide treatment to all those who need it. That is especially so when we are trying to find a suitable stem cell unit to use in the treatment of acute blood disorders such as leukaemia and anaemia. In those cases, it is important that a match donor be found. A related donor, usually a brother or sister, offers the best chance of achieving that, but unfortunately only 25 to 35 per cent. of patients have a match sibling. We therefore rely on unrelated donors.

Because transplants have become more common over the years, it is easy to forget just how difficult that work can be. Finding a donor who is genetically matched to the person needing treatment, fit enough to donate and willing to do so is a mixture of luck, hard work and professional dedication of epic proportions. Every time the process is successful, it is a major achievement that only those directly involved truly appreciate.

The task becomes even harder when the patient's genetic background is complex, as was the case for Jeanette, whose early death led to the introduction of the Give and Let Live campaign, as the hon. Gentleman said. However, the British Bone Marrow Registry, its counterpart in Wales and the Anthony Nolan Trust, which runs the largest bone marrow donor register in the UK, do that work daily. More than 13 million unrelated donors are available in registries worldwide. Currently, most come from a Caucasian ethnic background. Therefore, a typical patient from that racial group has more than a 90 per cent. chance of finding a matched unrelated donor, but that figure falls substantially for patients from ethnic minorities or for those who have a mixed genetic inheritance, who have only a 30 or 40 per cent. chance of finding a good match. Jeanette's husband must be congratulated on the tireless work he did to save her.

The Government have taken and continue to take strategic and targeted action to tackle the problem. We must not forget that the collection and use of bone marrow is but one source of stem cells for transplant. The NHS cord blood bank is the fourth biggest in the world, with some 14,000 stored umbilical cord blood units, and it has agreed business plans with NHSBT. We are investing nearly £10 million to increase the size of the bank to 20,000 stored units by 2013. A central aim of the NHS cord blood bank is to redress the imbalance of minority group representation on bone marrow registries by focusing collection at hospitals with ethnically diverse catchment areas. As a consequence, approximately 40 per cent. of donations come from the minority ethnic population, increasing the chances of finding matches for patients from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

The NHS cord blood bank has one of the best records of harvesting and banking unique tissue types to add to those available for transplant in the UK and worldwide. As part of this continued work programme, the Minister of State, Department of Health, my hon. Friend Gillian Merron, who has responsibility for public health, opened its newest collection site at St. George's hospital, Tooting, in October. As with all NHSBT's cord blood collection sites, St. George's was chosen because it serves families from a diverse multicultural mix.

We fully recognise the essential contribution of this work in supplying the NHS with suitable stem cells for transplant-work that saves lives. That is why we are determined to facilitate and promote discussion and debate on the way forward for the harvesting and use of stem cells for transplant. A review of the collection and use of umbilical cord blood, commissioned by the Department of Health last year, found practice in the UK to be comparable to that elsewhere. The review recommended further, detailed consideration of the collection and use of cord blood and a joined-up approach to service provision. Since that time, discussions have been held with a wide range of stakeholders on the issues we face in the collection, storage, commissioning and use of stem cells for transplant, irrespective of the source from which they are derived. We want to ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of this work and we are able to meet our obligations in matching stem cell donations to patients in need of a transplant.

Whole organ donation is also critical work. Currently, three people die every day in the UK while waiting for a suitable donated organ. More than 10,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant, a figure that rises by 8 per cent. every year. The Prime Minister has called for 20 million registered donors by 2010 and 25 million by 2013. NHSBT is running a UK-wide public awareness campaign to encourage more people to join the organ donor register and to talk to their families about their wishes. Also, it will soon be distributing information packs to MPs with an interest in donation and organising an event for MPs and stakeholders to raise awareness of the challenges of its work.

The hon. Gentleman raised the important issue of progress in schools. I know that all hon. Members are aware of the rigidity of the curriculum when it comes to such changes. I hope he understands that my role is not to look at the educational curriculum, although I believe that this debate is important and was well deserved. I will ask to meet the Minister for Schools and Learners and raise with him the importance of this debate, to see whether we can reconsider how we can encourage and facilitate participation in the scheme. As is accepted on both sides of the House, there are certain ministerial and departmental procedures to go through. However, I have given the hon. Gentleman a commitment, and I will seek to keep him informed and perhaps encourage him to come with me to that meeting.

Question put and agreed to.

House adjourned.