Some 24,000 people signed up to be organ donors during last week’s campaign, the national donor organisation said on Sunday evening.

In total, 27,624 were added to the register, some of whom expressly stated they did not want to be a donor or would leave the decision to relatives.

Almost 6 million names are now included on the register, 60% of whom are prepared to donate their organs to others after their death. There are around 1,000 people on the waiting list, most of whom need a kidney.

This year, as last year, the health ministry sent a letter to some 70,000 foreign nationals who have lived in the Netherlands for more than three years inviting them to sign up.

Although the letter was in Dutch, the campaign also included six foreign language videos, including English, Chinese, Arabic, German, Polish and Turkish.