DonateLife DVD Launch, Royal Melbourne Hospital 19 February 2012
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19 February 2012
[Acknowledgements omitted]
DonateLife Week is part of the Australian Government’s national DonateLife awareness campaign to increase family discussion about personal donation wishes.
Australia has successively achieved its highest ever donation and transplantation outcomes in the first two full years of the Government’s national reform agenda.
For the first time, our highest annual number of transplant recipients – 1,001 - was achieved last year.
This encouraging outcome is a result of the wonderful legacy of 337 donors and their families.
Since launching our DonateLife campaign, we have seen Australians respond positively to our call to discuss organ and tissue donation with their loved ones.
That it is why it is so important that we ask and know the donation wishes of our loved ones.
Let me here acknowledge the organ and tissue donors who have given the gift of life and improved the health of others in need.
I really respect the strength of our donor families who, at such a traumatic time, agreed to their loved one becoming a donor.
And I take inspiration from our transplant recipients and their families who embrace this second chance at life and welcome each day as a gift.
During the past 12 months I have met with many donor families and transplant recipients – many of whom have generously shared their stories in the DonateLife Book of Life and in the media.
What we learn from their stories is that the life of a loved one can end suddenly and unexpectedly. A day that begins like any other can change in an instant.
I remember Robyn who shared with us the story of her daughter Melody – a young woman with a zest for life – who became a donor to four Australians after a fatal car accident on her way home for Christmas.
Other stories give us insight into the transformation experienced by transplant recipients.
Three-year-old Sophie received a life-saving liver transplant in July last year. Sophie now has a future thanks to the courage of a family who had agreed to their loved one becoming an organ donor.
Sophie’s parents can now watch their daughter grow into the person she was destined to be.
With us today is the Bland family, Margaret, Jim, Emma, and James who will be sharing their experience and the loss of their son David.
Through their wonderful fundraising and support for DonateLife this DVD is being made available.
Their continued support for DonateLife is greatly appreciated and their personal commitment is an inspiration to us all.
Another critical area of the Australian Government’s national reform agenda is the delivery of world best practice intensive training in Family Donation Conversations.
Building on substantial work led by the Organ and Tissue Authority, and in collaboration with the Gift of Life Institute in Philadelphia, USA, a series of intensive workshops will be held across Australia.
These workshops will equip our DonateLife clinical staff with the skills needed to support families during the sensitive discussions about organ and tissue donation, held at a time of acute trauma and grief.
This advanced training is designed to make a significant contribution to increasing consent rates in Australia and provide families with the highest standard of care.
The Government’s national reform agenda to increase donation and transplantation outcomes in Australia is strengthened by the partnerships we share with our State and Territory Governments and their health departments, the medical community, the not-for-profit sector and the many individuals and families touched by organ and tissue donation.
During DonateLife Week this year, in cities, in towns, in universities, in shopping malls, in libraries and in the workplace, events will be held to encourage Australians to ask and know each other’s donation wishes.
To all who are joining with us, I thank you for your support in sending the message that it’s OK to talk about organ and tissue donation.
New partnerships have been forged that will bring the DonateLife message to communities across Australia.
For instance, the DonateLife message will also be carried onto the soccer field by Melbourne Heart and the Central Coast Mariners in their match next week and the National Rugby League has become involved.
The Australian Government is proud to be supporting these, and many other contributions to DonateLife Week.
This week we are asked to reflect on the importance of organ and tissue donation, and on our own capacity to save or heal the lives of others.
This week we are asked to reflect on all those donors and their families, whose decisions have given so many thousands of Australians the chance of a new life.
I commend the many organisations, students and community groups around the nation who this week have joined with DonateLife to encourage more Australian families to ask and know each others’ wishes.
Please have the conversation.
Ends
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