Information for prospective donors

The SWDBB is very grateful for brain donations as they make an invaluable contribution to research. We appreciate that the time of death can be difficult for family members and strongly encourage people who wish to donate or their relatives to make the necessary arrangements whilst the prospective donor is still alive.

For logistical reasons and to enable better quality research, we are rarely able to accept brain donations from individuals who have not been pre-registered. We are able to register potential donors who no longer have the capacity to consent themselves. If you are in the later stages of dementia and are unable to give your consent, or if you are completing the forms for a person who is unable to consent themself, we will accept the completed consent form as an intention to donate. However, at the time of your death or the potential donor’s death, we are legally obliged to obtain the countersignature of a person in a Qualifying Relationship in order for us to proceed with the donation.

We maintain a register of potential donors who have given consent for their brain (and spinal cord in clinically relevant cases) to be donated when they die. In addition to donations from people who have been affected by dementia, we have a pressing need for donations from older people who have not been affected by a neurological condition. There is a national shortage of such brain tissue. To register as a potential donor who does not have a neurological condition you need to be aged 55 years or over.

The Human Tissue Authority (www.hta.gov.uk) regulates and licenses the storage of donated brain tissue (relevant material) for ‘research in connection with disorders, or the functioning, of the human body’ within the legal framework set out in the Human Tissue Act 2004.

For informal queries about making a donation or to request further information on what is involved, please contact the SWDBB manager by telephone on 0117 4147821 or by email to swdbb@bristol.ac.uk.