One Year On...

One year ago today, a very brave and generous grieving family made the decision to donate their loved ones organs.

That decision saved my life.

There are no words to explain the gratitude that I have for being given a second chance at life. This year has been one like no other that I've ever lived through.

Physically and mentally getting through a transplant is really difficult and very emotional. I could never have made it through without the support of my family and friends. I can't even imagine not being around to see my nephews grow up!

I was able to celebrate another birthday, and help with another successful Hottie Challenge.

Amazingly, I've now been back at work at my day job full time since October. I been to Sydney twice for work.and I've been to Brissy and had a stall at Finders Keepers.

I took part in the Melbourne Marathon and the Great Strides Walk.

 But the best thing is that I can now get out and just ENJOY living!

None of this would ever have been possible without my beautiful shiny new lungs and that amazingly selfless gift...

I think about my donor every day. While I'm able to celebrate today with my family and friends, my donor family will be marking a different anniversary. I hope that they can find comfort in knowing how truly grateful I am.

Last year, I was still in hospital recovering during DonateLife Week. This year, I'll be taking part in the FilmLife Film Workshop Weekend, and also promoting organ donation via the Tour de Transplant and Tour de Chat.

I have a very good friend who is still waiting for a heart. I truly hope and wish and pray that his call comes soon... and please, whenever you can, make sure you have the chat with your family and friends.

The FilmLife Festival Screening Night

Lastnight I went along to the Screening Night for the FilmLife Project at Footscray Community Arts Centre. It was my first big social outing since my transplant (very exciting)!

'The FilmLife Project provides an opportunity for new and budding filmmakers to submit a three minute film around organ and tissue donation, specifically to help raise awareness around ‘knowing your loved ones wishes’ in conjunction with DonateLife Week 2013'

This year Sydney and Melbourne both had screening nights, and we watched the short films in unison between each city.

With Carly Findlay (Blog Judge) and Dr Sally Cockburn (Film Judge and Melbourne Screening MC)

Once again this year, there was also a FilmLife Blogging Competition. I was supposed to be on the judging panel, but I suggested that I may need a backup just in case I received a call....

I must have had a sixth sense, because that call came, and thank goodness, Carly stepped in for me on the Blog judging panel.

Carly and Tash

The short films were brilliant. It was great to be able to find out more about the process of making them from the filmmakers themselves, and the facilitators who ran the workshops.

The Melbourne crew with the Sydney crew on screen

The winning film was Somebody That I'll Never Know produced by Brooke Huuskes.




You can watch all of the films here - and you can vote for your favourite to win the peoples choice award. Each film is less than than three minutes long.

 
The winning blog was One Life by Alysha Hermann.

The full list of blogs:

Patricia Scheetz – Wishing for one more chance 
Rosemary Hughes – Yellow Eyes
Alysha Hermann - One Life
Alison Austin – Donate Life
Lauren Sherritt – Make Your Wish Count
Deb Robertson – Make Your Wish Count (a chat about something that is difficult to talk about)
Beth Green – Seeing Organ and Tissue Donation in a different light
Paul Mclean – The Twilight Zone
Gary from Being Gawee – DonateLife Week
Julie Green – Organ Donation and the Dog: Starting the Conversation
Amanda Smyth – A letter to my babies about organ donation
Stacey McKee - Suddenly I see


 The winning filmmaker Brooke Huuskes will be on Dr Sally Cockburn's radio program on 3AW at 6.30 tonight, so listen in!

My Creative Space - FilmLife

A little while back (before the transplant), I was comissioned to design / create some items for the FilmLife Project.

The brief was fantastic - I had free reign to design whatever I liked, as long as it included the official FilmLife Logo.

The printed fabric panels for the iPad sleeves arrived while I was in hospital, and then I found out that I wasn't allowed to sew when I got home..... aaaggghhh!

Luckily Bec stayed over last weekend and came to the rescue but sewing them up for me.

The FilmLife Blogging competition is still open until March 25th. It's simple - just write a blog post that inspires and sparks conversation about organ and tissue donation. You could win $250 just by entering!

FilmLife 2013

You may remember the FilmLife Project from last year.  It's all about getting young filmmakers involved in capturing stories about organ donation and transplantation on film.



Last year, the workshop was only held in Sydney, but this year, they're expanding to include Melbourne too. So, if you know any young filmmakers between the ages of 16 and 28 who might be interested in a free weekend of filmmaking workshops, get them to sign up .




It's a great opportunity to learn from industry experts!

This year, there is also another FilmLife Blog Competition, with the winning blog receiving a $250 cash prize!


It's really simple to enter (details below from the FilmLife page)

'Make Your Wish Count - Discover, decide and discuss organ and tissue donation'.

Just follow these simple steps:

1.    Write a 300-800 word blog post inspired by the theme of DonateLife week 2013
2.    Ensure you’ve included the tagline “make your wish count”
3.    Post it on your blog page and include the FilmLife blog comp banner and button (see how below)
4.    If you don’t have your own blog site – let us know and we’ll post it at www.filmlife.com.au
5.    Submit the link to your blog to blog@filmlife.com.au
6.    Entries close midnight Friday February 22nd 2013
7.    Share your blog on twitter by using #havethechat (we will share it too!)
8.    Unsure about any of the steps contact us at blog@filmlife.com.au

The winning blogger will be announced March 1 during DonateLife Week 2013.

Our wonderful judging panel will review and judge each blog based on it’s creative, passionate and positive content that encourages all Australians to have a conversation about organ and tissue donation. Originality is a must, so dust out the writers block and get down and dirty with your keyboard – and if your blog is judged the best, you could win $250!

For more information about organ and tissue donation in Australia to help you with your blog visit www.donatelife.gov.au.







..... and guess what?

I'm totally chuffed to have been asked to be one of the judges for the blogging competition, along with Professional Writer Peta Murray.

Peta and myself both have little Q&A's where you can read more about what we'll be looking for in the judging.

Image courtesy

If you're not a filmaker, or a blogger, then there's still a way you can get involved. 

Creativity Can... is all about getting involved to make a change. Just take a snap and email it in - all the details are here.

If you've made it through all of that info - congratulations! Any questions, please ask away!

The FilmLife Project Bloggers Challenge

What’s your take on or experience with organ donation, and why did you choose to take part in the FilmLife Blogger Challenge?   

For me, the answer to this question is simple.... I need some new strong healthy lungs.

I've been on the waiting list for a double lung transplant since August 31st 2011. I'm not quite sure how much longer I can last without them...


Blogging is a great way to be able to educate and to spread the message about the amazing gift of organ donation, and I'm hoping that lots of my fellow bloggers will also be inspired to answer these three simple questions.

I've been a registered organ donor ever since I was old enough to legally sign up. It wasn't until I was 27 that I was told that I would end up eventually needing a transplant myself.  Now ten years later, it's become a reality.

If you were to donate your organs, which one would you love to donate, and why?(nb. this question is intentionally quirky so feel free to be creative and have some fun with it)

If something happens to me, I'm donating everything.... except my pesky dodgy lungs of course (trust me - nobody wants them)!

I think my heart would be perfect for donation. It's grown big and strong from taking on all the extra workload and having to pump so fast while trying to distribute oxygenated blood around my body.

It's full of love for all my family and friends who have stuck by me along this wild and crazy medical ride.  


It has empathy and passion and creativity.... and seriously, who wouldn't want a bit of that?

Who in your family would you need to talk to about organ donation, to be sure your loved ones knew your wishes?

Absolutely everyone in my family, and all my friends know my wishes. We've discussed it endlessly. I'm also officially registered on the Australian Organ Donor Register via Medicare

I know that my family will ultimately have to make that final decision, so it's vitally important that they all know my wishes.



Would you like to join in the blogging challenge and answer the three questions?

Just blog your answers to the questions and add your details to the linky list. I'll tweet your post with the #filmlifeproject hashtag and it will then be added to the official FilmLife Blogger Challenge Page.






FilmLife Project Website
FilmLife Project on FB
FilmLife Project on Twitter

The FilmLife Project

Have you heard about the FilmLife Project?

As part of DonateLife Week 2012 (19th - 26th February), young filmmakers between the ages of 16 and 35 have the opportunity to make a 5 minute short film using the theme of organ and tissue donation, to raise awareness of organ donation, and specifically the very important issue of discussing your wishes with your family.

If you have a budding filmmaker in the family, its the perfect opportunity to have some fun while discussing an important issue. There are great prizes on offer and award winning filmmaker, and liver transplant recipient Paul Cox is one of the judges.

For those of us who are bloggers (not filmmakers), there's also a FilmLife Blogger Challenge.

I'm really hoping that all my fellow bloggers might join in and take on the challenge.....


From the FilmLife Blogger Challenge Page:

We’re looking for bloggers to help spark conversations about organ donation among young people, by taking part in a challenge we are putting to people in the engaged blogging community!

It’s helping us raise awareness not just about organ donation but also for the film festival in February where young people creatively interpret this fulsome topic and people’s experiences with it – from both sides of the track.

FilmLife Project is a collaborative project in conjunction with Donate Life Week 2012 (19-26 February), that aims to inspire and encourage young people to have conversations that ask and find out their loved ones wishes around organ and tissue donation.

Here’s how we’re asking our fabulous, engaged blogging community to take part.

A. Answer these questions:

 

1. What’s your take on or experience with organ donation, and why did you choose to take part in the FilmLife Blogger Challenge?
2. If you were to donate your organs, which one would you love to donate, and why?(nb. this question is intentionally quirky so feel free to be creative and have some fun with it)
   
3. Who in your family would you need to talk to about organ donation, to be sure your loved ones knew your wishes?

B. Create a mini-film as your FilmLife Project (optional):

 

We’re running a spin-off of the FilmLife Project on our Facebook page, where people capture a day from their life, this January, in 12 seconds. We’re calling it the 12 Seconds FilmLife Project. If you were in the mood, we’d love to see your 12 second video on the blog post too!

C. Link Your Blog

 

Please link your blog to www.filmlife.com.au so that anyone interested in submitting a film or attending the free filmmaking workshop on 21, 22, 28 January in Parramatta can register their interest. The workshop is worth $3,000 per person and there are only a few more places left.

D.  Tweet

 

Tweet your blog out using the hashtag #filmlifeproject - and we’ll retweet via our twitter account, @filmlifeproject.

For more information, here are some factsheets with statistics around organ donation in Australia to help you introduce your blog challenge. 

 

A huge thanks to all the bloggers who have already expressed interest and are taking part – your contributions will raise awareness and spark conversations about organ donation in young people and in doing so, help to save lives.

 

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I'm going to blog the answers to the blogging challenge questions over the weekend. Who else would like to join me?

FilmLife Project Website
FilmLife Project on FB
FilmLife Project on Twitter

PS - I have to thank Cathie for letting me know about it....