Two families have shared how they turned heartbreaking grief into the gift of life in a timely plea they hope will save more lives.
They feature in a six-part podcast series highlighting DonateLife Week (July 24 to 31), which encourages more Australians to register to become organ and tissue donors.
DonateLife teamed up with Queensland State of Origin legend Sam Thaiday to produce the series, A Gift Worth Giving, which delves into the important and heartfelt stories behind the vital donations.
Sam interviewed donor families and organ recipients from across Australia, to start a nationwide conversation about organ donation.
The series includes the story of Sunshine Coast mother, Mary Bourke, who lost her 18-year-old daughter Georgia to a brain bleed while she was playing touch football a few years ago
The podcast also features an episode with Caloundra mother Karina Bombski, who lost her 10-year-old daughter Sophie six years ago.
DonateLife hopes to encourage 100,00 Australians to become registered donors, especially after a 25 per cent nationwide decrease in donations since the onset of the pandemic.
It is estimated 1750 Australia are on a donor waitlist, yet there are about 13 million people aged over 16 who are eligible to register but have not.
It only takes a minute to register online.
Ms Bourke said it was a conversation their family regularly had before losing Georgia.
All too familiar with tragedy, Ms Bourke said she was proud to know Georgia had gone on to help seven people after donating her organs, tissue and corneas.
“It makes me feel really proud of her that through this tragedy her memory is still out there, living in people and making their lives better,” she said.
“Knowing that us making the decision to donate her organs made it a little bit more acceptable that at least something that was bad for us was good for others.
“As soon as the doctors said her bleed was catastrophic and told me there was nothing they could do for Georgia, the first thing I said was that she is going to be an organ donor.
“They didn’t even ask me. They were taken aback by that and I said we’d already discussed this and had already made the decision about it.”
The decision to donate began after Ms Bourke’s sister-in-law – a registered organ donor – died suddenly from a brain aneurysm, aged 44.
“We didn’t know Aunty Toni was registered to be an organ donor and when she died, we started the conversation that as family if anything ever happened to us that we would donate,” she said.
Sadly, not long after, Ms Bourke’s husband Rod – a fit and healthy 49-year-old paramedic – died suddenly of the same condition as his sister. Unfortunately, he was unable to donate as he died in his sleep.
Someone else who is passionate in promoting the importance of organ donation is Ms Bombski.
Shortly after a swimming pool accident that ended in tragedy, the Caloundra family made a decision that saw their daughter Sophie change the lives of 10 people.
Deciding in just 30 seconds to give life, and speaking to Sunshine Coast News in 2021, Ms Bombski said it was a choice the 10-year-old would have undoubtedly made for herself.
Sam – who played 29 games for the Queensland Maroons, more than 300 games for the Brisbane Broncos and 32 games for Australia – said the podcast opened his eyes to the importance of registering.
“Across my career I’ve had a lot of deep and meaningful conversations with my friends, teammates and family but the one conversation I haven’t had is the one that really is important,” he said.
“It’s the conversation that could literally save a life – it is the conversation around organ donation.”
Ms Bourke agreed and said she never thought her family would find themselves in the position of donating life.
“I think it’s essential to have the organ donation conversation,” she said.
“You never think it’s going to happen to you. We never thought we would be part of this community.”
A Gift Worth Giving is available to stream on Spotify, Apple, Google and Amazon. The Bourkes episode is live while Ms Bombski’s episode goes live on July 18.
To register as an organ or tissue donor or to find out more, visit DonateLife.
Queensland organ donor statistics
- A record 73,736 Queenslanders registered as potential organ and tissue donors in 2021.
- 1.26 million eligible Queenslanders (30.4 per cent) are now on the Australian Organ Donor Register.
- 91 Queenslanders who died in 2021 became organ donors, saving the lives of 275 Australians.
- The proportion of Queensland families consenting to organ donation remained steady at 61 per cent (a slight decrease from 62 per cent).
- 479 Queenslanders donated their eyes and 138 deceased donors donated tissue.
- The Queensland Tissue Bank provided donated tissue and eyes for life-changing procedures to more than 2000 grateful recipients.
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