Dear DonateLife team,
Winter is well and truly here for those of us in the southern states. I returned from the TSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting held in Brisbane last week on the coldest June Canberra day in 37 years!
The conference was a great chance to hear the latest clinical research and potential advancements. Our very own OTA staff members, Mark McDonald, delivered a great session on national and state data and Luke Datson spoke on OrganMatch. I also enjoyed catching up with our DonateLife leaders in QLD, Leo and Tina, and a number of our transplant colleagues.
A highlight of the conference was hearing from the international keynote speaker Robert Montgomery on not only his progress with xenotransplantation but his own life journey as a heart transplant recipient in 2018. He was the surgeon in the USA who recently transplanted a pig's kidney into a deceased donor. The kidney was not implanted in the body so they could see it function and it worked well for 72 hours (noting this was all ethics had approved for the trial).
He also shared his story – after finding out in his late 20’s he had a congenital heart defect after the sudden deaths of his father and his brother, he had one of the first defibrillators inserted into his abdomen. The next few decades saw him have 7 cardiac arrests including one which his son provided 40 minutes of CPR (in Patagonia!) resulted in him being on a ventilator for several weeks and waking unable to talk or walk! In his words “he worked hard and got himself back transplanting”.
Following another arrest in 2018, the only option was a heart transplant. He had been looking at organs from Hep C positive donors being put into recipients without Hep C and then treated with the new medications which ‘cure’ it. He took the evidence to his surgeon and asked him to do this – and 3 weeks after being worked up and waitlisted, he received a Hep C positive heart (most were not being used due to Hep C at this stage). He was a very engaging, witty speaker!
You will have seen that OTA’s Amendment (Disclosure of Information) Bill 2023 was tabled in the House of Representatives recently. Fifteen MPs gave speeches in support of the Bill. It’s a real testament of the great work we do across the DonateLife network and how we are making a difference to the lives of so many in our community. You can read the Hansard transcript on the Parliament of Australia website. It will now be considered by the Senate.
As you may know there has been a WA Parliamentary inquiry into organ donation. Helen Opdam, Mark McDonald and I attended in May. Our WA DonateLife leadership team attended a separate session. It was good to see the committee genuinely interested in WA’s status in donation. We all walked out of the room feeling we left the committee members with more knowledge about the program.
Victoria’s Parliamentary inquiry into increasing the number of registered organ donors was held last week, and Helen, Mark, Brianna and I also attended. The committee were really interested in hearing more about community engagement activities and how our national program is delivered.
We held our OTA Advisory board meeting a few weeks ago, which was extra special as it was our Chair’s, Dr Mal Washer’s final meeting. Mal is stepping down after 6 years. He has continuously brought such rich knowledge and expertise in supporting the OTA and assisted us through several critical enhancements to the national program.
Assistant Minister Ged Kearney hosted us up at Parliament House to acknowledge Mal’s contribution and thank him before he officially finishes up in the role on Friday 30 June.
It has been a pleasure and privilege to work alongside Mal and I cannot thank him enough for his support and guidance.
L-R: OTA Advisory Board members Shelly Park, Professor Carol Pollock, Oren Klemich, Dr Mal Washer, Nicholas Brown, The Hon Ged Kearney MP, OTA Advisory Board member Margaret Kruger and OTA CEO Lucinda Barry.
On International Nurses Day, we joined people around the world, marking the important contribution nurses make in our community. Did you know 12 May was chosen as International Nurses Day as it’s Florence Nightingale’s birthday? And a big thanks to those who shared and liked our social media posts, and to all our nurses doing important work every single day.
We also recognised the generosity and passion of our volunteers across the country during Volunteers Week. Since 2009, loads of volunteers have helped us raise awareness for organ and tissue donation, and we can’t thank them enough for their efforts.
Centre: DonateLife QLD volunteers Col and Cheryl.
I was delighted to hear that DonateLife NT won the team award for Excellence in Nursing/Midwifery at the 2023 NT Nursing and Midwifery Awards. Using a holistic model of care, DonateLife NT acknowledge and adapt to individual patient and family needs to ensure the provision of compassionate, considerate and respectful end of life care, irrespective of the donation outcome. The team displays exemplary dedication to facilitate and ensure access for all eligible Territorians to organ donation services, despite the many geographic, logistical and specialist clinical challenges encountered in the NT context. Congratulations Team NT!
L-R: Shan Cairnes, Lee Wood, Kirstine Kearns and Adjunct Professor Jo Seiler, General Manager Darwin Private Hospital.
It was also fantastic to hear that Dr Forbes McGain, one of our Victorian Medical Donation Specialist’s at Western Health was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for service to medicine, in the King’s birthday awards in June.
Warm wishes
Lucinda
What's coming up
Conferences and webinars
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Date |
Activity |
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On-demand |
The MOHAN Foundation, in association with Commonwealth Tribute to Life Project, webinar ‘Non-directed Altruistic living donation’. |
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On-demand |
BTS/NHSBT Joint Congress 2023 – Free webinar |
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On-demand |
PDK Australia Journey of a Transplant with Prof Steven Chadban https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcsmnNKR-w |
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20-22 July |
A Joint ANZICS Safety & Quality Conference 2023 (Darwin) |
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18-21 October |
ISODP 2023 16th Organ Donation Congress (Las Vegas) |
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26-27 October |
Transplant Nurses Association National Conference 2023 (Sydney) |
OTA updates
DonateLife Week 23-30 July
This year during DonateLife Week, we are primarily targeting engaged Australians in many of the OTA led initiatives (i.e TV, paid media, social media, mainstream PR). So, what does this mean? An engaged Australian is aware of DonateLife, supports organ and tissue donation, but hasn’t registered. This group is most often a female parent or family decision-maker. This is the person making the decision on whether a loved one becomes a donor at the end of their life. Did you know that women aged between 45-65 years old are most likely to consent to donation when they know their loved one wanted to be a donor?
But we also know how important it is to make sure DonateLife Week can work for other secondary audience groups too. We know a lot of your planned activities will fit into this space, which is why flexibility is important in the concept. At the OTA, we’ll be targeting secondary audiences through our partnerships and grants activities – with projects targeting youth, sports fans, First Nations Australians and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Audiences. And, to create groundswell of awareness at a community level, all of us are engaging our existing supporters, stakeholders and advocates with our café activation.
Some of our activities include:
Lights up!
It’s looking more and more like Australia is going to be ‘well lit’ come DonateLife Week with all the light-ups that are happening across the country. Buildings and bridges will turn magenta including Luna Park in Melbourne, Trafalgar Bridge in Perth, Adelaide Festival Centre, Story Bridge in Brisbane, National Museum of Australia and Hobart Town Hall.
Spreading the word
If you’re out and about, keep an eye out for our advertising on buses, billboards, on the back of toilet doors, in airports and hospitals, and your local supermarket. Each state and territory have come up with some innovative ways to share our message.
Getting involved
There’s plenty of ways you can get involved in your hometown. In Melbourne, you can check out the Street Heart laneway activity from Wednesday 19 July. You can head down to the Darwin Football Stadium at 8pm on Saturday 22 July for the Theodore Kassaras Memorial Cup. Or, if you’re in Adelaide, take part in the walk at 10am on Sunday 23 July at the Riverside Lawns. For those on the Sunshine Coast, get along to the MIX FM live broadcast at the Alex Surf Club on Monday 24 July (6am-9am). And there is so much more happening around the country! Bookmark the DonateLife Week webpage and check back on Monday 3 July for more information about our events.
Year to date data – January to May
Donation and transplant outcomes to end of May 2023, while lower than pre-COVID outcomes, are similar to last year:
- 193 deceased donors for Jan-May, a 3.2% increase on the same period in 2022 (187)
- 534 transplant recipients for Jan-May, a 4.3% increase on the same period in 2022 (512)
The DonateLife Audit data to the end of May 2023 shows a national consent rate of 54%, down from 55% during the same period in 2022. Other key metrics include:
- 83% overall referral rate, up from 81% during the same period in 2022
- 80% of staff raised discussions involved a Donation Specialist Nurse, up from 77% during the same period in 2022.
Community engagement updates
Spotlight on Eye and Tissue donation
Thank you to everyone who shared social posts and pitched media stories in May. It’s been a successful marketing activity with some great organic reach. Did you read Don’s story? When Don passed away in 2017, his wife and daughter agreed to eye tissue and possibly cornea donation. Tissue donation saves and transforms lives in many ways, including restoring sight. For more stories, myth busters and fast facts, make sure you check out the website. Visit Eye and tissue donation awareness | DonateLife for more information.
Students' education
News just in! According to Cool Australia’s statistic gurus, our lessons have so far been taught to just over 11,000 students! Not bad considering we’re still working behind the scenes on properly rolling out the education resources across Australia. How we’re going to do that will be presented to you later in the year. So, don’t forget about our school lessons when you’re out and about visiting your local schools. They can be found here Education Resources | DonateLife
A Leagues grand final
Our partnership activity with the A Leagues included the men’s grand final in June (Melbourne City vs Central Coast Mariners). There was website advertising, LED signage and an on-site activation run by the NSW team! We might be bias but were cheering on the Mariners to support one of our ambassadors Danny Vukovic. And they won! If you missed Danny sharing his personal story about organ donation earlier this year, check it out here.
Game on!
It was a full house at the Sunshine Coast Lightning Super Netball DonateLife match day on Mother’s Day. Magenta filled the stadium thanks to our QLD team, and donor families and recipients joined this fabulous event. Lightning lost by just 1 point on the siren in a nail-biting finish against the Melbourne Vixens.
In the news
Recently, there were two interesting shows on free-to-air TV.
ABC’s Compass Program, ‘Lottery of Life’ aired on Sunday 30 April. Our NSW team were key to the filming. The half an hour long episode took several months in the making with assistance of NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service. It was a great look at organ donation, with heartfelt, real-life stories and commentary from many people involved in the process behind-the-scenes. Excellent work team NSW! You can watch it full (grab the tissues!) on ABC Iview.
Then, on Channel 9’s RPA on Monday 1 May, the episode told Kyle’s story. His first lifeline of a kidney transplant from his brother fifteen years ago failed. Kyle then received his second kidney transplant, giving him another chance at life - a living donation from his sister. It can be watched by downloading the free Channel 9 app.
Network news
DonateLife NT
Street Smart High
For the fourth year in a row, DonateLife NT were invited to be a part of the 2023 Street Smart High event. This is a SA/NT based program sponsored by the Automobile Association of the NT (AANT) aimed at 15-17 year olds to educate and increase awareness around the consequences of alcohol and other risk-taking behaviours and road safety. This day was a collaboration between Road Safety, Fire and Emergency Response Teams, NT Police, St Johns Ambulance, the RDH Trauma Team and DonateLife NT, plus many other stakeholders. Our Darwin Medical Donation Specialist, Dr Guido Janssen, presented to an audience of over 1300 teenagers about organ donation in the NT, what it means to be an organ donor and the importance of speaking to your families.
Kidney Health Week
During Kidney Health Week, DonateLife NT held an education stall in the Royal Darwin Hospital foyer alongside the renal team. We have received consistent feedback from the community that they want to hear the whole story that leads to organ donation and this was a perfect opportunity to do this. The renal team provided education on how to keep your kidneys healthy, early intervention, dialysis and transplantation. We told the second half of the story, explaining where kidney transplants come from, and the importance of talking to your family about donation. We had positive engagement and the NT Chief Minister, Natasha Fyles, popped past to offer her support.
Sunrise presentation
After ongoing consultation with a local Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Organisation (ACCHO) Wurli Wurlinjang, DonateLife NT was invited to speak to another ACCHO in the region, Sunrise Health Service Aboriginal Corporation. Over two sessions one week apart, DonateLife NT presented virtually to multiple clinics across East Katherine and South East Arnhem land including Mataranka, Barunga and Ngukurr. The presentations were very well received with lots of questions. Having a week between sessions was beneficial as participants came back with thoughtful questions. DonateLife NT is hoping these sessions will lead to greater engagement across the region in the future.
DonateLife QLD
Community engagement
We’ve been out and about in the community visiting schools and universities, with universities being a high priority for us this year. We were invited to QUT’s Community Giving Day and got the chance to interact with hundreds of students and staff. Some of the students had friends who became donors or had family members who were recipients. From donor friends and families to local and international students, it was a great day of raising awareness and encouraging conversations about taking that first step to register to be a donor.
Community Champions
We held an online ‘Meet and Greet session’ for new volunteers and were able to welcome living donors, recipient families, recipients and donor families into our growing Community Champions Volunteer Program. We’re looking forward to rolling out more training opportunities for our new and existing volunteers, with sessions on ‘how to help out during DonateLife Week’, ‘how to speak to the media’ and ‘how to speak to the community’.
Sunshine Coast Lightning Game
As part of OTA’s partnership with Sunshine Coast Lightning, a team of DonateLife staff and volunteers were invited to attend the activation event on Mother’s Day. It was a full-house game with Lucinda flying up from Canberra for the event and to take part in a Q&A session and a three-quarter time activation on court. The game was live streamed on Kayo and Foxtel, with the stadium filled with our DonateLife magenta. Recipients and donor families formed a Guard of Honour for the players entering the court, then local lung recipient Renee the coin toss. Donor family members Mary and Mikayla delivered the match ball to the umpires.
Staff movement
Our Donor Family Support Coordinator, Diane Murphy will be taking a well-deserved, long service leave of two months starting in June. She has been with our DLQ agency since September 2010. Di looks forward to exploring the Baltic Sea, catching up with her son in Stockholm and doing some painting. Her locum will be Stephanie Jessup who is a social worker. Steph has worked across many areas in the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital, most recently in cancer care, surgical and medical areas and she has a keen interest in grief and bereavement.
Gold Coast kicked off World Transplant Games with Gift of Life Baton Tour
The Gift of Life Baton Tour officially started on the Gold Coast, travelling 4,600kms through four states and across the Nullarbor, to arrive at the World Transplant Games in time for the Opening Ceremony on 16 April. Donation Specialist Nurse Mandy Leitch helped organise the official Tour launch at the Gold Coast University Hospital, with altruistic kidney donor Gordon Rutty and a group of his friends, acting as Guardians of the Baton, driving it across the country on their motorcycles.
DonateLife SA
SA/NT Transplant and Organ Retrieval Symposium
DonateLife SA in collaboration with the SA Liver Unit hosted our annual SA/NT Transplant and Organ Retrieval Symposium on 30 March at Jarmer’s Kitchen, Adelaide. The evening provided an opportunity for both DonateLife SA, DonateLife NT and local transplant teams to meet and network. It was also a valuable educational platform to discuss coal face local and national issues and celebrate success. There were several key speakers with a total of nine presentations including Baxter Healthcare.
Attendees said the evening provided productive and informative discussions and learnings and was a complete success.
Meet Jess
The team would like to give a warm welcome to Jessica Hely, our Donation Specialist Nursing Coordinator who commenced her employment with DonateLife SA in January 2023.
Originally a Queensland girl, prior to working for DonateLife SA Jess was employed at Noarlunga Hospital in their Emergency Department and before that was at Flinders Medical Centre for 4 years.
Jess has over 10 years nursing experience in Emergency Departments across South Australia and the Northern Territory. In 2016 she completed her Post Graduate Certificate in Emergency Nursing.
Jess has a pet Siamese fighter fish and in her spare time loves wining and dining, reading novels and running.
DonateLife TAS
Donor family quilts in Tasmania
DonateLife Tasmania was approached by a donor family mother Sue, a couple of years ago, with an idea to provide quilts to donor families.
Sue’s daughter sadly passed away in 2018 and her family generously agreed to organ donation. Sue has vivid memories of leaving the intensive care environment at that time, and returning home feeling quite hollow, after several days leading up to donation where her family had been closely and sensitively supported.
As a mechanism to support her own grief journey, Sue proposed a plan to call to action her network of quilters, to consider making quilts to provide to future Tasmanian donor families. Sue’s vision was the quilts might provide something tangible to take home, to provide comfort in the difficult times ahead.
From a humble beginning, Sue’s network has grown considerably, and she has continued each year since to provide a steady stream of beautifully sewn quilts, all with their own intricately detailed designs, that are provided as a gesture of hope for Tasmanian donor families that choose to accept a quilt.
Sue 3rd from right with part of the DonateLife Tas team and her latest contribution of quilts
DonateLife VIC
Staffing update
On Tuesday 13 June, our Marketing and Communications Manager, Alana Jones moved to a full-time role with the OTA Communications and Engagement Team. We’re very lucky to still have Alana working in the sector, and she will continue to be based in our Carlton office.
Our Education Team Lead, Madhu Raman, was successful in the recent Expression of Interest for an Education Specialist role to join the OTA Clinical Programs Team. She started in this role part-time on Monday 15 May and will continue to also work part-time for DLV.
Organ donation featuring on VicRoads licence renewal email and paper letter
After almost 3 years of discussion and working with VicRoads, organ donation messages are now added onto the VicRoads licence renewal email and paper letter. This initiative began in May, and we’re looking forward to tracking the impact this has on registration.
Parliamentary inquiry update
We have been very busy in the past month preparing our submission for the Victorian Inquiry into increasing the number of registered organ and tissue donors. We are pleased to see the interest in improving registration rates in Victoria and appreciated the chance to share more information at a hearing last week. If you are interested, our submission is available online.
Rohit D’Costa stars at WHO 76th World Health Assembly
Huge congratulations to Victorian State Medical Director Rohit, who, as part of the RMH/Global Scrub Choir, sang at the World Health Organisation’s 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland earlier this month.
For the special occasion, the Choir performed a moving rendition of Bridge over Troubled Water in front of delegates from around the world, including former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. Click here to listen to a speech by Dr Emma O’Brien, Director of Music Therapy, RMH (1:29:07) before listening to the Choir sing (1:37). Well done, Rohit, and your RMH Scrub Choir colleagues.
Staff profile - Meet Jamie Loh
What’s your role in the DonateLife Network?
Communications Officer at DonateLife Queensland
What does your role include?
It involves so much, including:
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building relationships with our Community Champions
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getting to know their stories
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finding suitable angles for media opportunities
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gathering content for various marketing platforms
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assisting with community engagement
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helping at photoshoots and events
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a whole myriad of creative and community-focused responsibilities!
What led you to your career?
I guess I stumbled into communications after sitting in my art history lecture one day and realising that I wanted to do something more practical and meaningful. So, I switched degrees and studied a B.Communications (majoring in Public Relations), alongside my B.Arts.
What was your first job?
In my first job, I was the State Marketing Coordinator at Arcare Aged Care.
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
How about an average-time owl? If I get my 8.5-9 hours of sleep, I’m a happy bird.
Are you a dog person or a cat person (or neither)?
Dogs for sure! My dream is to run a doggy daycare (and basically play with them all day).
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?
I would teleport so that I can be time efficient and not sit in planes.
If you could only have three apps on your smartphone, which would you pick?
My weather app, Google Maps and my calendar.
What’s your favourite sport to watch and which team do you barrack for?
If it’s not the World Transplant Games, then I’m not interested!
What’s one hobby you’d love to get into?
I’d love to learn a martial art or attend some self-defence classes.
What’s the top destination on your must-visit list?
I’d love to visit Egypt and Israel one day.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
You can find me singing Disney songs or belting out classics from Queen.
Do you have news or feedback to share?
This update is a snapshot of news from across the DonateLife Network. We’d also like to continually improve our monthly update, and we welcome your feedback.
If you have an update to share, get in touch with your state or territory communications rep or email the OTA communications team.
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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.
