Donate Life Week 2013

Today heralds the beginning of DonateLife  Week 2013

It just so happens that this has been the most significant one for me as I'm still in hospital recovering from my bilateral lung transplant.


I'm not going to lie. It's been the most difficult challenge of my entire life, and I still have a very long way to go towards recovery (probably twelve months).


A I am ever so grateful to the beautiful family who donated lungs so that I now have the chance at a new life

Today also marks the beginning of the Life Flashes exhibition. All of the photos are on display in the corridor between the courtyard and the carpark at the Alfred Hospital.

Winners will be announced officially next Sunday at the DonateLife Event in Lygon St.

A huge thankyou to everyone who entered.

Please enjoy the beautiful heart mosaics from our instagram challenge last month!

Life Flashes - FMS Day 3 Heart

Heart by Melbourne Epicure

Can I just say one word - WOW!

Yesterday's photo a day challenge on Instagram was amazing.

We had over 170 people post a photo of a heart and hashtag it with #LifeFlashes to promote organ and tissue donation awareness and DonateLife Week 2013.

I'm in the process of obtaining individual permission to use each photo in a large mosaic for the Life Flashes Exhibition. So far, I have 138 photos that I can use which is absolutely fantastic.

Once everything is completed, I'll be instagramming and blogging the photo mosaics so that everyone gets to see the beautiful finished product!

There are also some beautiful photos that have been submitted in the Facebook competition so far. The top ten will be printed onto large canvasses and displayed in the exhibition. Please go and check out the entries, and even enter your own photo!

All the details for the FB comp are right here (and you don't need to be on FB to enter, as you just email your entry to Louisa, our HLTTV Membership Officer)


If you're interested in learning a little about what it's like to be on the transplant list, then ABC2 is screening the BBC documentary Love On The Transplant List Saturday night at 8.30 PM.

 

A huge thankyou to Carly for putting me in touch with Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim and a giant thankyou to each and every person who submitted a heart. It means the world!

Sunday Snippets / Donate Life Week / The Last Race

Fabric designed by Me

And so we've come to the end of another busy week...

Some extra contract admin work came my way, which meant that there was no time for crafting.

Speech Bubble Blackboard by the Blackboard Boy

Even though this blog is a politics free zone, I have to say that I'm really disappointed about the ridiculous political circus that has dominated the media for the last few days, when the focus should have been on Donate Life Week.

Pretty Wall hanging gift from Vic - Gorgeous Crochet Bunting made by Trudi

I want to say a huge thankyou to everyone who emailed, left me a comment, or helped to spread the Donate Life message this week.

As a finale to Donate Life Week, there's a documentary called The Last Race on ABC1 at 6.30 PM tonight.

• About The Program

• Coinciding with DonateLife Week, a national week of raising awareness and promotion of organ and tissue donation, this dramatic film tracks a family's heart-wrenching dilemma when their beloved son is declared brain dead after a cycling accident.
  
  At the hospital, they wrestle with the decision to donate his organs, having never asked him his wishes and never having had the conversation among themselves.
  
  Meanwhile, in intensive care, a father is watching his teenage daughter with cystic fibrosis struggle to breathe and deteriorate to critical condition. She needs a new set of lungs to survive. Elsewhere in the hospital, a 45-year-old woman also is on the recipient list, where she has waited for two years.
  
  The cyclist's organs become available, but the doctor must decide whose need is greatest.
  
  Then the race is on.
  
  Fewer than one in five Australians has had memorable discussions with their loved ones about their donation wishes.

Sunday Snippets via Tinniegirl

Donate Life Week 2011

I'm a couple of days late, but this week is Donate Life Week in Australia.

It's the perfect time to not only join the official Organ Donor register, but to sit down and have a discussion with your family to ensure that they are aware of your wishes.

Just in case you don't know my story, there's a very good reason that I'm so passionate about this issue..... so here's the very short version:

I'm 36 years old and I've had a chronic lung disease since the age of 15. I was then diagnosed with panhypogammablobulinemia about 11 years ago which just added further complications.

At the age of 28, I was told that I would need a lung transplant at some time in the future. That was a huge bombshell and the first time that I really took the time to think about my future (or lack thereof). Well that was eight years ago now, and I've managed to keep plodding on with my own very dodgy barely working lungs, connected to a never-ending supply of oxygen.

I often think about what it would be like to be able to breathe again - to ride a bike, to go for a run, to walk up a hill, to go shopping, to pick up my nephews, even to mop my floors! All those normal things that I can't do.

At this stage, I need to keep my own dodgy lungs for as long as I possibly can. But, I'm hoping that when the time arrives that I can't go on any longer, I'll receive the ultimate gift.


There are over 1700 Australians waiting for an organ transplant at any time, and the wait can be anywhere between 6 months and 4 years.

The Donate Life website is a wonderful resource full of information, including the family discussion page.

Please spare some time this week and have that conversation....