Elizabeth Ward (British campaigner)

Elizabeth Despard Ward MBE (née Rynd; formerly Aston; 11 October 1926 – 20 July 2020) was a British healthcare campaigner known for pioneering organ donor cards and founding the charity Kidney Care UK.

After gaining fundraising experience working for The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Ward started raising money for Kidney Research UK in 1971 when her son Timothy started receiving dialysis treatment. She gained press attention for the cause of kidney patients by placing a personal advertisement in The Times seeking a transplant kidney for her son. Ward then struck up a correspondence with the then Secretary of State for Health, whose son went to school with Timothy. This led to her involvement in the Government's Kidney Donor Scheme, which introduced donor cards with posters designed by Ward.

In 1974, Ward recognised the need for a patient-focused organisation to add to the work of Kidney Research UK. She worked with her friend Robert Platt, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, to launch the British Kidney Patient Association, which was later renamed Kidney Care UK. Ward was noted for her "don't ask, don't get" approach to fundraising. Using this method, she raised £70 million for hospital renal units, and ensured kidney patients were the focus of television programme Blue Peter's Christmas 1982 appeal.

Described as "redoubtable and fiery", Ward also had a "near fanatical zeal" in advocating for patients in the face of sexism, prejudice, and the traditional power balance within the medical establishment. Upon realising that donor cards alone were not enough to eliminate the shortage of kidneys available for transplant, she also advocated for the UK's introduction of opt-out consent for organ donation. She argued for this approach throughout the nineties and into the 2000s, with the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act passing in May 2020, shortly before her death.