Message from the OTA's CEO
Dear DonateLife team,
We’ve finally reached the end of winter, and I am ready to escape the cold as I am sure most of you living in the southern states also are! It’s been an engaging month, with a number of meetings with the network, the final work on our 5-year strategy and the end of the Great Registration Race for DonateLife Week.
Our Strategy
In exciting news, we have just released our 5-year strategy. Those of you who were at the June network engagement meeting in Sydney will already have heard an outline of our goals. Over the next 5 years, we aim to return donation and transplantation activity to pre-pandemic levels and to drive further improvements. Our goals are to build support across the community, optimise opportunities in the clinical sector, and enhance systems to enable quality outcomes. To achieve this, we will explore additional large-scale initiatives to increase donor registration. We will also continue to drive best practice in hospitals through data and accountability and explore further opportunities for living kidney donation.
I look forward to working with the DonateLife Network, in partnership with hospitals, the transplant sector, the eye and tissue sectors and the community, to achieve great things. I encourage you to take a look when you have a moment.
National Eye and Tissue Sector Framework
The National Eye and Tissue Sector Framework was published on 15 August along with the Transition Action Plan, which aims to consolidate and progress actions that will inform the implementation approach for the National Strategy for Organ Donation, Retrieval and Transplantation and the National Eye and Tissue Sector Framework.
Clinical Governance Committee (CGC) and Jurisdictional Advisory Group (JAG)
We met on 17 and 18 August virtually as unfortunately plans to re-start our face-to-face meetings were put on hold due to the recent surge in COVID cases. The meetings included the DonateLife leadership and state and territory health representatives from across Australia. We had representatives from every jurisdiction — which is no mean feat given the staffing shortages being experienced across the network at present due to COVID-19!
At the CGC meeting, Luke Datson, who has recently joined OTA’s Clinical Programs team, presented on the non-renal organ rotation process. Luke touched on identified issues with the current process — and outlined some proposed changes designed to address them. This will be worked up – ask your clinical mangers for more information if you are interested in understanding more.
Chris Van Diemen from the Biotherapeutics Association of Australasia and Luke Weinel from the Eye Bank Association of Australia and New Zealand also provided the committee with an eye and tissue update. It was noted that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved Lifeblood’s application for the removal of restrictions on donors from the UK in relation to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which may present an opportunity for eye banks to apply to the TGA for an exemption too.
At the JAG meeting, representatives from each jurisdiction provided an update to the group, sharing their agencies’ wins and challenges since the last meeting. The group also heard about the progress of legislative amendments to ‘disclosure of information’ clauses in the state and territory Human Tissue Acts and the OTA’s legislation. The jurisdictions are at various stages of the process.
There was also a discussion and support for the proposal for the harmonisation of the Human Tissue Acts, noting they have not been jointly updated for 40 years. The process for this to occur is through the Australian Law Reform Commission (via the Attorney General) however only 1-2 topics are selected each year. There have been 2 prior submissions in 2018 & 2019 which were unsuccessful. The Commonwealth Health Minister will be writing to the Attorney General seeking to have it on the agenda for next year.
Progress Report Meetings
We have also been holding our 6 monthly progress report meetings with each DonateLife Agency. It is a great chance to hear from the team about the highlights and challenges as well as review performance data from January-June. Key themes from the meetings have been challenges with the workforce, ongoing online engagement instead of face to face and the pressures on the whole health system.
DonateLife Week
DonateLife Week is over for another year, and the Great Registration Race continued right up until the end of August. This year’s campaign was massive, and no doubt you’ll all have come across many DonateLife Week news articles, advertisements and social media posts in the last few months.
I want to thank all our DonateLife agencies’ media and communications teams for their immense efforts throughout July. We saw fantastic coverage across Australia — and that will have a real impact on raising awareness for organ and tissue donation.
Many highlights from DonateLife Week have been included in the community engagement update and DonateLife Network news below.
We are now in the process of evaluating the campaign and look forward to sharing those results with you soon.
Friday 2nd September
A reminder that Jersey Day is this Friday. Jersey Day aims to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation, inspired by the story of Nathan Gremmo, who at the age 13 saved the lives of six others as an organ donor, following a tragic accident. Each year, DonateLife supports the day with a big social media push. While not an official DonateLife event, we are pleased to take part and promote the day, and we’re encouraging participation across the DL network. You can get involved by wearing your favourite team’s jersey — or an official Jersey Day jersey and sharing a photo on social media.
We’ll be sharing Jersey Day activities too, tagging @jerseydayau and using the hashtags #jerseyday and #donatelife. If you’re sharing how you participated on social media, be sure to tag the official DonateLife account so we give you a shout out!
Save the date - 2023 Donation and Transplantation Clinical Conference
The OTA will be hosting the 2023 Donation and Transplantation Conference 2-3 May in Melbourne. The conference will focus on key clinical areas of donation and transplantation and will provide an opportunity for professionals from the donation, retrieval and transplant sectors to explore and share current, new and emerging issues in the field. A conference organising committee has been formed with representatives from the donation and transplantation sectors. Keep an eye out for a 'save the date' communication, which will be sent out shortly.
Network Update survey
Finally, we will be sending out a survey shortly for some feedback on these monthly newsletter updates. We're hoping to understand what you like, what you find useful, and what can be improved. Keep your eyes out for that survey and thankyou in advance! The results from this will inform how we do these updates in the future.
Warm wishes,
Lucinda
OTA updates
Year to date data – January to July
The current national donation and transplantation rates have remained stable compared to 2021. Whilst the possible donor pool of neurological patients is back to 2019 numbers, a higher proportion of cases are deemed not medically suitable and the resulting lower request numbers (~10% below pre-COVID levels) is compounded by a decrease in consent rates and a lower proportion of cases progressing to donation (despite lower numbers of planned DCD cases). There was a lot of discussion at CGC and the progress report meetings on how we can drive recovery from the impacts from COVID.
Donation outcomes are up slightly on 2021, but the number of transplant recipients has decreased slightly.
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248 deceased donors for Jan-Jul, a 1% increase on 2021 YTD (245)
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672 transplant recipients for Jan-Jul, a 2% decrease on 2021 YTD (685)
The preliminary January - July DonateLife Audit data show a national consent rate of 54%, a 2% decrease on 2021. Other key metrics include:
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81% overall referral rate, the same as 2021
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92% AODR checking before a staff-raised FDC, up 1% on 2021
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79% of staff raised discussions involved a Donation Specialist Nurse, up from 77% in 2021 but this lower than the target of 80% for this year.
Clinical Programs
The Paediatric Working Group (PWG) met for the first time in August. The working group is chaired by Elena Cavazzoni, co-SMD from NSW. The Working group is made up of Donation Specialist Nurses and Doctors from around Australia — with the purpose of exploring challenges and barriers in paediatric donation, as well as adapting and delivering best practice paediatric donation in paediatric units.
The NHMRC Ethical Guidelines continue to develop, with a draft expected to be available for public consultation by the beginning of 2023. OTA continues to work with the Australian Health Ethics Committee (AHEC) on an overarching document that will complement a larger more in-depth guideline document.
The National Operating Theatres SOP working group also met for the first time in August. This working group consists of donor coordinator representatives from each jurisdiction and is chaired by Kirstie Owen, who started with OTA’s Clinical Programs team in July. This document aims to create a nationally consistent standard operating theatre procedure guide for donor coordinators.
New members of the Clinical Engagement Team
In August we welcomed Ryan Quade into the role of Director of Clinical Engagement. Ryan will be leading the team’s work on a range of clinical projects, including OrganMatch and the Moving Medical Images project.
Also joining the Clinical Engagement team as Assistant Director, Caitlin Kolaric comes to OTA from ACT Health. Congratulations Ryan and Caitlin, and welcome to the team!
Community engagement updates
Melbourne Storm DonateLife partnership game
On Sunday 17 July, we kicked off activities for the lead-up to DonateLife Week with an exciting Melbourne Strom v Canberra Raiders Game at AAMI Park. This was a key part of our DL partnership with the Storm to help promote The Great Registration Race for DonateLife Week in support our goal of 100,000 more Aussies registering to become organ and tissue donors.
‘Register in two sips’ at Parliament House
During DonateLife Week, Lucinda and Grace Bodman from OTA’s Communications and Engagement team headed up to Parliament house as a part of our ‘2 sips to register’ QR- coded coffee stickers efforts. They invited all members of Government and the Opposition to show their support at Aussie’s Café where they had some fantastic conversations with MPs and Senators about the importance of organ and tissue donation. They were joined by Minister Ged Kearney, David Pocock, Senator Jordon Steele-John and many more. It was fantastic to see so much support from members of Parliament and Government.
Lucinda Barry with Ged Kearney, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, at Parliament House.
Western Bulldogs DonateLife partnership game
On Saturday 6 August was the Western Bulldogs DonateLife Partnership game against the Fremantle Dockers. While the score didn’t go in our favour with 78-95 to the Dockers, it was a great game at Marvel Stadium. This included an interview with Lucinda and John Pollock (a donor family member and recipient) on the ground before the game, young liver transplant recipient Archer Irwin running through the banner with the players, and many magenta beanies, and our stadium messaging on display! DonateLife Victoria organised 5,000 ‘goal’ cards that had the registration QR code on the back of the card that were handed out to fans outside the stadium.
Network news
DonateLife NT
DonateLife Week 2022 in the NT
After the last few years of COVID-19 restrictions, it was good to be back out in the community for DonateLife week in the Northern Territory. Hospital information stands and education sessions, multiple market stalls and trivia nights, footpath messaging, banners and coffee cups stickers across the NT all showed Territorians that it was DonateLife Week. Being able to interact with the community again and meet people personally touched by our work was definitely a highlight!
Stall at Mindil Beach Markets – Darwin, banner at Todd Mall - Alice Springs, footpath messaging at East Point Reserve – Darwin.
Visit to the Tiwi Islands
On 9 June, we were given the opportunity by the Tiwi Land Council (TLC) to attend a meeting in Wurrumiyanga on the Tiwi Islands, to give a talk, and to provide education and seek consultation with the communities. We spoke about the whole story of organ donation, including looking after ourselves, kidney failure, organ transplant and organ donation. We notified them that for organ donation to occur, the family needs to give consent, which is when their loved one is in ICU. When we shared that we had been told from other First Nations peoples that conversations around this need to happen in community with family, not in the hospital when grieving, a loud ‘Kuwa’, the Modern Tiwi language for ‘yes!’, came from the attendees.
Time was provided for questions from the TLC members and they shared stories about people they knew who had received a transplant and relatives that were living organ donors. Some members said that our information brochure ‘Yarn with your mob about organ and tissue donation’ should be in each clinic on the island, others suggested having a community consultation with question-and-answer sessions followed by a BBQ to build attendance.
We then visited the Health Clinic and met with a team member’s previous colleagues to chat about providing education on organ donation in the communities. A staff member shared that her son is currently on the kidney transplant waiting list and is able to do peritoneal dialysis at home in Wurrumiyanga.
We returned for lunch with the TLC members where we had some good conversation with members and TLC employees. For merchandise, grey caps were very popular amongst the men as were facemasks.
We plan on future visits to the islands in collaboration with community leaders as to what best suits their communities. Further contact will be made with each community via TLC.
Wurrumiyanga from the air (left), and DLNT staff and a canine passenger! (right)
DonateLife WA
DonateLife Week 2022 in WA
Coffee cups, coffee stickers and posters were flowing in Western Australia during DonateLife Week 2022. There were also hospital display stands, artwork presentations throughout the hospital network, and plenty of social media activity too. Volunteers, ICU staff, ED staff and executives all found a way get involved.
Kurongkurl Kaartdijin
Each of the retrieval hospitals’ Intensive Care Units (ICU) were presented with a plaque from DonateLife WA, called “Coming together to learn”. The plaque features a painting titled ‘Kurongkurl Kaartdijin’ by Turid Calgaret, a Whadjuk Noongar artist. The artwork was commissioned by DonateLife WA to help start important conversations about organ and tissue donation within Aboriginal communities.
In the artist’s words, the painting represents a “community of men and women coming together to discuss and learn about the concept of organ and tissue donation.” The artwork features the intentional use of calming colours to help facilitate discussion of a serious topic, which isn’t traditional practice.
The plaque also includes words that capture the significance of coming together as a community to show how organ and tissue donation can help an Aboriginal person waiting for a transplant.
Artist Turid Calgaret presenting a plaque at Perth Children’s Hospital (left) and café staff involved in the ‘two sips to register’ campaign at Royal Perth Hospital (right)
Multicultural Services Centre of WA (MSCWA) – 2022 CAG recipient
Communications Officer Jenny Duggan has been working with the MSCWA by presenting at their multicultural workshops. To date, five out of ten community workshops have been held with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Mongolia and Burma. They are also developing a podcast to record and share experiences of organ and tissue recipients, donor families, and living donors from CALD communities, to help raise awareness about organ and tissue donation within these diverse groups.
DLWA staff update
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A warm welcome to our temporary Administration Officer Alex Myszka, who has joined us from the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, where she worked as an Executive Assistant & Administration Officer.
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Recruitment processes are underway for Donor Coordinators, DFSC, Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and Administration positions.
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Farewell to Diane Kearney – Education & Administration Coordinator. Donor Coordinator Mary Lynch and CNS Nabeela Shihab will be covering this position.
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CNM Melissa Smith is currently on long service leave. Donor Coordinators: Andree Gould is acting up until 5 September and Kylie Monk will act up from then to 5 October.
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DFSC - Donor Marie Schaumann and Kirstie Owen are assisting with Donor Family correspondence in the interim.
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Congratulations to Dr Simon Towler who will commence as Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health WA (DOHWA) on 12 September. He will remain as SMD at 0.2 FTE.
DonateLife QLD
DonateLife Week 2022 in Queensland
DonateLife Queensland took part in a variety of DonateLife Week events throughout the state, including an Outside Radio Broadcast at Alexandra Headland Surf Lifesaving Club on the Sunshine Coast. The Gold Coast team attended the ‘DonateLife Bond University Rugby Ladies Day’, while the Townsville team were featured in the Cowboys vs West Tigers game on 24 July. Donation Specialist Nurse Meagan Baldwin spoke to the 28,000 strong crowd in Townsville, while liver recipient Shaun Carter kicked a few footballs into the back of a Toyota utility.
DonateLife Week was officially launched in Queensland by Member for Cooper, Jonty Bush, who is also the daughter of an organ donor. The official launch took place at Queensland Parliament House with more than 80 hospital staff, recipients and donor families taking part in a fun mental and physical obstacle race around the Brisbane CBD.
Digital billboards, buses, monument light-ups and banners were used throughout the state to increase visibility of the campaign. The “Register in two sips” coffee activation was also very successful, engaging 92 cafes across the state who spread the message of registration to their customers and shared photos on their business social pages. The coffee activation not only engaged local businesses but also helped to re-engage our Community Champions, with many helping us find cafés from the Gold Coast to Cairns.
Media was also a strong focus for the team with DSNs in each region securing print, online, television and radio stories, with support from local Hospital and Health Services media teams. The DonateLife Qld Media and Communications team were also involved in overseeing some major national stories, providing Queensland case studies for media outlets such as, The Project, ABC online and TV, House of Wellness, Junkee Media and Studio 10.
Thank you to the OTA Communications and Engagement Team for their leadership and support throughout the campaign.
Keith McNeill, Jonty Bush, Dennis Young, Tina Coco and Leo Nunnink at the DonateLife Week launch event (left), and a game of tunnel ball during the race around Brisbane CBD (right).
DonateLife ACT
DonateLife Week 2022 in the ACT
Our DonateLife Week launch event was held at Merici College. It was attended by the ACT Health Minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, Canberra Health Service (CHS) Executives and staff, DLACT staff, community representatives, donor families and recipients as well as staff and school leadership teams from several Catholic schools throughout the ACT.
We had some recipient stories and a DonateLife ACT Manager interview in the media, as well as coverage over social media with stories from recipients and specialist CHS nurses. DonateLife Week content was included in the weekly Canberra Health Services (CHS) Check Up, CEO Update, the whole of government email, and Multicultural Newsletter.
Across Canberra, we had six buses and 10 cars wrapped with DLW branding. Transport Canberra (TCC) got on board with bus and light rail drivers wearing DonateLife caps and internal messaging on screens. We also had ACT library screen displays and TCC advertising across the internet, social pages and city billboards, and we lit up Canberra monuments magenta! These included Telstra Tower, the National Carillon, Old Parliament House, Royal Australian Mint, National Museum, Questacon, Science Dome, Lightrail stops, Malcolm Fraser Bridge, and the Canberra Times Fountain.
On the corporate and business front, we had several pharmacies promote the week in-store and via digital screens and social pages. RedCross Lifeblood centres in Garran and the city promoted the week with merchandise and coffee cup stickers, Majura Park Bunnings promoted the week in-store with merchandise and an information stall, and we had 12 cafes across Canberra participating in the ‘two sips to register’ campaign.
DL ACT staff update
Dr Liam Byrne was recently appointed to the role of Donation Specialist Medical (DSM) in Intensive Care at Canberra Hospital and will commence with DLACT in the coming weeks. Dr Byrne has spent the past decade in ICU and is excited at the prospect of further raising the profile of organ and tissue donation in the unit. He is passionate and proactive in providing education and knows the importance of cohesive teamwork.
Community events
DSNCs Tara Russell and Ahalya Krishinan recently attended the Canberra Punjabi Sport and Cultural Association Meeting, where they held an information and merchandise stall.
DonateLife TAS
DonateLife Week 2022 highlights in Tasmania
DonateLife Tasmania had the support of 30 cafes and coffee shops state-wide during the DonateLife week coffee cup campaign, distributing almost 30,000 stickers!
As a thank you for ongoing support, the DonateLife Tasmania clinical team in Hobart distributed DLW cupcakes to engaged clinical departments at the Royal Hobart Hospital who support donation.
In Launceston, the City Council illuminated the Town Hall in magenta during DonateLife Week and metro buses in Hobart, Launceston, and Burnie were advertising DonateLife Week on their backs.
We also provided case studies for print, radio, and TV interviews, achieving good media outcomes state-wide. A highlight was David and Lorraine Willson, who shared their story for DonateLife Week during a TV interview with Seven News. David is waiting for a kidney transplant and his wife, Lorraine, has supported him through his dialysis journey.
DonateLife Week cupcakes at the Royal Hobart Hospital (left), and David and Lorraine Willson (right).
DonateLife SA
DonateLife Week 2022 in SA
Launch Event: The Great Registration Race SA
On Sunday 24th July, South Australia kicked off DonateLife Week with The Great Registration Race SA in the picturesque surrounds of Adelaide’s Elder Park (Tarntanya Wama). The event was a huge success and the family-friendly (and fur baby-friendly) nature of the event made the whole day really enjoyable.
It was an honour to hear from one of our SA donor fathers (and OTA Advisory Board member) Oren Klemich, as well as liver transplant recipient Heather Makris. Attendees were welcome to bring a photo or memento of their loved ones who had selflessly donated as a way of dedicating their walk to them. During the week, we also lit up all major monuments throughout the CBD!
Participants in the Great Registration Race SA, including Heather Makris (left), and Oren Klemich speaking at the launch (right).
Coffee activation
On the Monday morning of DonateLife Week, Alana Roscio and Dale Birrell set up shop with the Hon. Chris Picton, SA Minister for Health and Wellbeing, and Professor Helen Marshall, South Australian of the Year 2022, to give away free coffee and cupcakes to the public. Even though it was a bit of a rainy morning, free coffee and cupcakes certainly softened the blow of the Monday morning blues. It gave us a great opportunity to discuss and promote the importance of recording your wishes on the register.
Alana Roscio, Oren Klemich, Professor Helen Marshall, the Hon. Chris Picton, Dr Stewart Moodie, and Dale Birrell.
Hospital Donut Day
As a way of thanking staff who have been involved in the donation process for all their hard work throughout the year, DLSA gave out 528 Krispy Kreme donuts at our major hospitals in ICU, ED, Operating Theatres, Cardiology, Liver and Renal.
SA DSNC’s Nigel Palk, Bethany Frith and Amanda Stewart at Hospital Donut Day
Breakfast at SAFM
On 21 July, we had breakfast with Bec, Cosi and Lehmo from SAFM Adelaide, while organising a DonateLife Week radio interview. We were lucky enough to be invited to listen to the show live and hang out with the team for a bit off-air. Cosi is quite an iconic South Australian, so it was great to meet him and the others and talk a little more about organ and tissue donation. Cosi has some very strong views about the importance of all Aussies being registered as organ and tissue donors, which was good to hear and to encourage him to keep talking about it!
DL staff Alana and Dale, Heather Makris (liver recipient), Michael Makris (Heather’s husband), Dr Stewart Moodie (SA SMD) and Bec (Rebecca Morse), Cosi (Andrew 'Cosi' Costello) and Lehmo (Anthony 'Lehmo' Lehmann).
Game Day activation at Glenelg Football Club
On Saturday 20 August DonateLife SA, in collaboration with one our wonderful volunteer recipients, Heather Makris, coordinated a DonateLife SA/SANFL Game Day activation at the Glenelg Football Club for the Glenelg Tigers v Central District Bulldogs league game. The game day was focussed on DonateLife, and organ and tissue donation were highlighted throughout the day. Donor family member Sid Davis, son of the Hon Nat Cook MP, who is also a strong advocate for organ donation, performed the coin toss in memory of his brother Sammy D.
DonateLife SA community advocate and liver recipient Heather Makris with Sid Davis (left), and DonateLife SA team Dale Birrell and Alana Roscio raising awareness around organ and tissue donation at the league game (right).
DonateLife VIC
DonateLife Week 2022 highlights in VIC
DonateLife Victoria had a huge DonateLife Week, following two years of state-wide lockdowns. All hero images and video for the national campaign were filmed in Victoria, with Victorian case studies. A social media and internal communications push through the Emergency Services Commissioner saw most Victorian Emergency Services agencies promoting registration. The Media & Communication Team secured print, online, radio and television stories across the state, with the release of local registration data helping to secure regional and rural articles. 14 unique stories were published in Victorian NewsCorp papers in July as part of the national media partnership. The team have also supported sporting partnerships, with Melbourne Storm and Western Bulldogs partnership rounds held in Melbourne. They have also reignited DLV's community engagement program, hosting stalls at the VCE and careers expo and the Victorian careers expo.
DLV staff update
We warmly welcome back Kristen Willmott, who has re-joined the DSNC team at The Alfred.
A big welcome also to three new DSNCs who have recently joined the team:
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Samantha Stones at Western Health
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Annabelle Paton at St Vincent’s Health
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Freya Parrotte at Monash Health
We would like to say farewell to Dr Niall Kennedy from Eastern Health and thank him for his contribution to our service. With his departure, we welcome Dr Jennifer Porteous as the new MDS at Eastern Health.
We would also like to announce the appointment of Madhu Raman as our new Education Team Lead. Madhu brings with her significant experience in critical care nursing (ED) and a Masters in Nursing Education. Madhu has led clinical portfolios in innovative blended learning and content development, and developed educational frameworks in ED. She has coordinated and led simulation training for medical and nursing teams in critical care and used education programs to support surge workforce planning during the pandemic. We are very excited that she has joined our team here at DLV.
Congratulations to Jayne Nixon from The Alfred on the safe and happy arrival of baby Tommy.
Congratulations Rhonda Holdsworth
We want to congratulate Rhonda Holdsworth, Director of Transplantation and Immunogenetics Services at Lifeblood, on winning the TSANZ Lafferty Distinguished Service Award at their recent conference. This award is only presented every two years and is a well-deserved recognition of Rhonda's dedication to the service.
DLV September Network Meeting
Our next Network Meeting will be on Friday 2 September, and will be centred on increasing awareness and understanding around the donation process, specifically related to our First Nations peoples. Thank you to everyone from across the DonateLife Network who will be presenting to DLV staff at this meeting.
Upcoming event: Melbourne Royal Show
We are super excited to be returning to the Melbourne Royal Show for the first time since 2019. The show kicks off on 22 September and is a massive event, running over 11 days with around 45 shifts to be filled by our staff and volunteers. This is a great opportunity for us to re-engage our volunteer network, and to train new volunteers to help with community events.
DonateLife NSW
DonateLife Week 2022 highlights in NSW
Activities to celebrate DonateLife Week took place across New South Wales and DonateLife staff hosted an array of events across the network to thank their critical staff colleagues for their compassion, support and dedication to families who embark on the donation journey.
The public also got behind the awareness week by supporting the Cycle for Life event in Northern NSW and posting photos to social media holding up a ‘one’ to signify how long it takes to sign up as an organ and tissue donor. We had over 100 generous coffee shops join our #RegisterInTwoSips campaign, which saw close to 160,000 QR coded stickers placed on take away coffee cups across the state!
A highlight was the Lions Clubs of Parramatta, Canterbury-Bankstown and Wakeley Fairfield joining forces to host a DonateLife BBQ at Campbelltown Hospital in South-Western Sydney.
DonateLife Week BBQ at Campbelltown Hospital: SWSLHD DSN Melinda and Kade, Emily (Project Officer DonateLife), Lions Parramatta member Graham Estreich, and Wayne Aiken, liver transplant recipient and DonateLife Shitbox rally contender (left), and a birthing unit for sausage sandwiches (right).
Australia and New Zealand hosts the WEBS!
The 2022 World Eye Banking Symposium (WEBS) was virtually hosted by the Eye Bank Association of Australia and New Zealand (EBAANZ) in late July. The NSW Tissue Bank staff presented three key abstracts alongside our General Manager, Danielle Fisher, who chaired a headline discussion session.
Vale, Philip Bower
The NSW Tissue Bank extends our deepest sympathies and support to the family and friends of Philip (Phil) Bower as we reflect on his amazing contribution to the tissue donation sector. Phil was a prominent and influential Director, Chairperson and member of Lions NSW/ACT Savesight Foundation, and Board Member of the Sydney Eye Hospital Foundation Board of Management. His contributions, advocacy and support for eye donation and corneal transplantation will not be forgotten. His inspiring passion will remain with us. He will be sorely missed.
Do you have news to share?
This email is a small snapshot of news from the DL Network. If you have an update to share, get in touch with your state or territory communications rep or email the OTA communications team.
What’s your role in the DonateLife Network?
Clinical Systems and Engagement Lead at OTA.
What does your role include?
I’m currently working with my team to organise the Donation and Transplantation Forum for 2023 but I’m also involved in OrganMatch as well as other clinical systems projects.
What led you to your career?
My career started as a Registered Nurse 16 years ago. Predominantly I’ve worked in the field of cancer research and clinical trials. I recently made the move to OTA as I wanted to branch out and try something new but still wanted to have a health focus and make a difference.
What was your first job?
I worked at Donut King after school and on weekends.
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
Neither - I like to go to bed early and sleep in but with 2 small children I’m generally up quite early.
Are you a dog person or a cat person (or neither)?
I love both but I have a dog.
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?
Teleportation.
If you could only have three apps on your smartphone, which would you pick?
Photos, Messages and Google.
What’s your favourite sport to watch and which team do you barrack for?
I’m not a huge sports fan, although it’s always nice when the Raiders have a win. Otherwise, I prefer to watch my husband play Floorball (What’s Floorball? I hear you say) and watch my daughter’s dancing.
What’s one hobby you’d love to get into?
Running.
What’s the top destination on your must-visit list?
Italy.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Anything Disney, I love to sing-along with my kids in the car, they’re also the only ones I would subject my singing to.
These updates are distributed to DonateLife staff across Australia, via the contact details within the DonateLife Learning Site. To update this distribution list, please speak to the education coordinator in your jurisdiction. We thank you for not sharing this update with anyone outside of the network.
