Staff at Epsom and St Helier hospitals are raising awareness as part of the NHS Organ Donation Week.

Nurses from the organ donation team at St Helier NHS Foundation Trust are manning a stall all week to help raise awareness about the nationwide initiative.

In a statement posted to Twitter, a spokesperson for Epsom and St Helier hospitals highlighted the significance of the campaign in light of new laws surrounding organ donation.

"Our organ donation team is in the main reception at #StHelier today to celebrate #OrganDonationWeek and spread the word that the legislation is changing."

They also urged residents in the area to consider becoming donors themselves ahead of talking to their families about the decision.

"Please talk to your family about your organ donation decision #PassItOn," the spokesperson said.

Organ Donation Week is a week-long celebration of organ donation across the UK.

This year’s event sees the NHS encourage dialogue between donor families, transplant patients, the wider NHS and organisations to reinforce the importance of organ donation.

Health officials want to encourage people to join the donors list so that in the event of death, their organs can be used for donations in order to save the lives of others.

While organ donations were at an all-time high in 2018, thousands were still denied because families of the deceased were unaware about their relatives' decision to join the organ donor list.

The staff at Epsom and St Helier hospitals, like the NHS more generally, are also raising awareness about recent changes to UK law regarding organ donation.

From spring 2020, organ donation in England will move to an 'opt out' system.

The new legislation was also referred to as 'Max and Keira's Law'.

Max Johnson and his family were waiting for a heart transplant and had campaigned for an "opt-out" system before and after his life-saving surgery.

Max was eventually saved thanks to a young girl called Keira Ball, who sadly passed away aged 9 years old.

Her parents made the selfless decision to help others through their own tragedy.

The new law means that all adults in England will be considered to have agreed to be an organ donor when they die unless they have recorded a decision not to donate or are in one of the excluded groups.