Katie Campling

Katie began her career as a journalist with a regional newspaper. There she worked closely with an inspirational young man named Adrian, who was suffering from Leukaemia. During his illness, Adrian decided that he wanted to campaign for education for young people about the huge importance of blood, organ and blood stem cell donation. To do this, he enlisted his good friend Katie to help him. Adrian sadly died in October 2008 but before he passed away, Katie and Adrian brought his "Sign up for Sudders" campaign to Downing Street, inspiring the government to provide funding to build awareness amongst young people of the value of donation. Following on from a successful pilot period, Katie was instrumental in establishing the Register and Be a Lifesaver project, now run by the charity Anthony Nolan. Through this project, over 40,000 young people have received a presentation about the importance of donation and many have gone on to give blood, join the Anthony Nolan blood stem register and join the Organ Donor Register. In December 2010, Katie took a step back from her journalism career and began working full-time with the Register and Be a Lifesaver project as coordinator and mentor for volunteer presenters in the London region. Katie is an incredibly determined young woman, who worked with Adrian every step of the way to see his life-saving vision realised and has since dedicated herself to keeping this vision alive.