Sydney, August 3: With just 32% of Australian adults currently on the national Register, yet 69% of Australians willing to donate; DonateLife is asking ‘What are you waiting for?’ during DonateLife Week.
A new campaign page – www.donatelife.gov.au has made it easier for Australians to register and share their donation decision online, so that more people can read about doners and make a decision about organ and tissue donation.
When you join the Australian Organ Donor Register, YOU
- Make it official.
- Remove doubt. Registering your decision is important because it leaves your family in no doubt of your decision to save lives a donor.
- Save more lives. In 2015, organ donation proceeded in 91% of cases where the deceased was a registered donor- this drops to just 52% where the potential donor had not registered and the family had no prior knowledge.
There are some 1,500 Australians and their families waiting for a life-saving transplant and you can make a difference; as did Rupesh Udani and his young family.
Rupesh – father of 7-year-old daughter Deyaan Udani, was one the main speakers at the launch at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith organized by the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service (OTDS).
Deyaan had tragically suffered a brain haemorrhage and became an organ donor during a family holiday overseas in January 2016. Deyaan saved the lives of four others.
At the launch, Rupesh was joined by his 9-year-old daughter Naisha who, last year, along with her little brother Deyaan, told her parents that she wanted to be a donor after learning about how organ and tissue donation can help others at school.
Rupesh and his family are raising awareness that almost anyone can donate organs and tissue. There is no age limit on the donation of some organs and tissue.
While age and medical history is considered, no one is too young, too old or not healthy enough to become a donor.
The Australian Organ Donor Register is the only national register for organ and tissue donation for transplantation after death. Recording donation decisions is voluntary and you have complete choice over which organs and tissue you wish to donate.
The Register enables authorised medical staff to check a person’s registered decision anywhere in Australia, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more information about DonateLife Week visit www.donatelife.gov.au