Canvey teenagers Joe and Luke up for NHS film award (From Echo)

Canvey teenagers Joe and Luke up for NHS film award

8:10am Monday 18th June 2012 in Castle Point By Jacqueline McMillan

TWO schoolboys have got through to the finals of a national film competition to help encourage people to become organ donors.

Amateur filmmakers Joe Mander, 15, and Luke Whitlam, 15, who attend Castle View School, in Foksville Road, Canvey, have put together a two-minute film for NHS Organ Donation Through a Lens.

The competition, which coincides with National Transplant Week, aims to try to persuade people to register to be organ donors and crucially pass on news of their wishes to their friends and families.

The youngsters, who are both studying for their GCSEs, wrote and directed the short film, which follows two people, and how their dreams of going to school and of becoming athletes, are affected by organ donation.

Joe, of Gainsborough Avenue, Canvey, said: “It is really exciting to be through to the final of the competition.

“It is a bit of a hobby of ours, making films, and I think I might like to do it when I am older, so getting this far is a real boost.

“It is all for a really good cause. I mean it is something that really can save a life.

“My aunt is a nurse, so she told us about the competition and helped us out with information and everything. Fingers crossed we win.”

Just 30 per cent of the UK’s population is signed up to be an organ donor.

One donor can save, or transform, up to nine lives and many more people can be helped through the donation of tissues.

Only ten films have been shortlisted for the final round of the competition.

The creators of the winning film will receive £1,000 of film equipment to help further their career and have their video posted online.

Entries will be judged by leading industry specialists. The winners will be announced on July 4.

For information on how to register as an organ donor, contact 0300 1232323 or visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk