Cyprus is hosting this year the European Day for Organ, Tissue and Cell Donation, according to an announcement by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and HealthCare (EDQM).
The 2026 edition of European Day for Organ, Tissue and Cell Donation, more widely known as European Donation Day (EDD), will be celebrated from 8 to 10 October under the theme ‘Sharing lives’, it said.
Hosted this year by Cyprus, with the principal programme of events taking place in Paphos, EDD 2026 is being organised by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Cyprus and the Cyprus Transplantation Council, with the support of the Karaiskakio Foundation, and in collaboration with the EDQM, it said.
‘In a visible gesture of solidarity, prominent historic buildings in Strasbourg (Palais de l’Europe) and Paphos will be illuminated in green – the colour of EDD – for the duration of the event’, it adds.
‘EDD offers an opportunity to honour donors and their loved ones, highlight the journeys of transplant recipients and recognise the professionals whose expertise and dedication make donation and transplantation possible,’ EDQM said.
Commenting on this ‘significant occasion’, Petra Doerr, Director of the EDQM, said that donation ‘is a tremendous act of solidarity that knows no borders’, adding that it brings together individuals, communities, healthcare professionals and institutions ‘in pursuit of a shared goal: to save lives and restore health.’
The scale of that solidarity, it is noted, is reflected in the nearly 45,000 organ transplants performed in Council of Europe member states in 2025, ‘one third of which were made possible by living donors’. It adds that the most recent Newsletter Transplant figures show that at the end of 2025, 92,320 patients were waiting for an organ transplant, hoping for a life-changing or life-saving treatment, while that, last year, 7,624 people died waiting for transplantation.