Today sees the launch of Bermuda's Organ and Tissue Donor Week with residents being offered free check-ups every day.

Health officials will be on hand at the Transport Control Department (TCD), the Bermuda National Library on Queen Street, and in the reception area of the Bank of Butterfield in Reid Street, between 11.30 a.m. and 2 p.m. each day.

They will screen for cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, all of which can lead to serious health problems later in life if left undetected.

And they will be handing out free information and donor cards.

And tomorrow at the Bank of Butterfield, Dr. Ronald Lightbourne will be on hand to input people's health data into a computer, which will then give print-outs of people's health status.

The week has been organised by the newly set-up Bermuda Organ and Tissue Donor Council.

The Council aims to raise awareness The council was formed to teach about the importance of organ donation and transplants, by educating the community, offer support and advice, and encourage every member of the Island to carry a donor card.

Chair of the council Glenda Daniels said since the group was set up last month, it had received numerous calls from people wanting to get involved and looking for more information.

She said the Police were now represented on the group, along with businesses, numerous doctors, and previous donor families and recipients. Mrs. Daniels, clinical co-ordinator in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, said she wanted to encourage as many people as possible to turn out for the screenings.

She said: "Since all the publicity, we have had a lot of businesses calling us up wanting to organise health checks for their staff and asking if they can give a donation to the council.

"It's going really well. We have had so many calls, we could do with a secretary. We have been quite overwhelmed by it."

Mrs. Daniels said the council was in the process of setting up a website and was looking to become a registered charity.

It wants to set up support networks for families who have agreed to donate organs of a loved one who has died, and also for those people awaiting transplants and receiving them.

And later in the year, a dinner will be held for all families in Bermuda who have either donated organs of a loved one, or who have received a donated organ.

Mrs. Daniels added: "There is so much for us to do, but we are trying to take it one step at a time.

"Our most important thing at the moment is community education, so hopefully the organ donor week will have some impact."

The council has met every Monday since it launched in March. At tonight's meeting, at the Montrose Building of the hospital, a transplant surgeon from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where many Bermudians go for transplants, will speak from 6 p.m.

For more information call Mrs. Daniels at the ICU, or she can be e-mailed her at: glendannorthrock.bm.

Donor cards can be picked up at Post Offices, doctors' surgeries and TCD.