PEOPLE living in Hambleton are being encouraged to become organ donors.

Every household in the area will receive its electoral registration form later this month along with a plea from district council chairman Percy Featherstone, urging residents and their families to join the NHS organ donor register.

"All they will have to do is sign a second form and post it back to us with the electoral registration form. We will do the rest.

"There is an acute need for organ donors in this country. During the last year alone, 400 people died while waiting for a transplant. By joining the register we can potentially save and transform lives and make organ donor shortage a thing of the past."

The Vote for Life scheme was launched in 1999 in Somerset, but now has 26 councils involved. This has resulted in an extra 250,000 potential donors on the register.