Sam’s Story: Walking for Awareness, Walking with Gratitude

Senior Charge Nurse Sam Slight has spent years caring for patients in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh’s Transplant Unit – and this year, she stepped outside the ward to walk alongside them at the Edinburgh Kiltwalk. With the event falling close to Organ Donation Week, it felt like the perfect moment to raise awareness and support for patients, families and staff whose lives have been touched by organ donation.

What started as a simple conversation with a volunteer in the Transplant Unit, and a former patient themselves, quickly grew into something much bigger, as patients, families and staff came together to form the Transplant Trekkers.

For Sam, the walk was deeply personal as she had cared for many of the patients who joined the team.

It evolved a little bit from being all about organ donation,” Sam said. “But especially walking it with patients and their families, I felt it was actually more about the donation itself – about giving these guys the opportunity to do this. They were able to walk 5 or 11 miles. It was one participant’s two-year anniversary that day, and two years ago their life was very, very different. Another participant came to us as a patient only 18 months before. That’s what it’s all about – the awareness that without organ donation, this doesn’t happen for them.

“I’m always grateful to be part of their journey. They’ll say they’re grateful for us, but it’s a two-sided thing. I looked after another participant, Moray, when he was a patient, and now he’s like my sidekick, volunteering, doing all this for me. Watching everyone cross the finish line, I was really proud.”

The impact of the walk has already sparked interest across the unit.

There’s already a lot of staff saying, ‘I want to do it next year.’ And I hope we get more patients involved too – now that they’ve seen what we did and that people were able to do it, they’ll think, ‘I could do that too.’”

For Sam, the Transplant Trekkers have shown the life-changing impact of organ donation, what is possible for patients after transplant and the strength of the community it creates.

The money raised by the Transplant Trekkers will help provide additional patient comforts, practical support, and welcoming environments, making hospital stays a little easier for patients and families when they need it most.