LOCAL emergency responders are jumping on board a new campaign to talk about organ and tissue donation.
In the lead-up to DonateLife Week, Australia’s national awareness week to promote organ and tissue donation, Perth’s Bone and Tissue Bank PlusLife has launched a corporate challenge to increase awareness of life-changing donations and to bolster the numbers of people registering their wishes.
Belmont-based St John Ambulance is one workplace that has joined the movement.
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READ NOWMetro operations manager Joel Moore has been a paramedic for 17 years and said the topic was something everyone should address sooner rather than later.
“It’s a discussion that people should be having prior to a critical stage in life, so that family are aware of people’s wishes and can make choices if someone’s unable to make their own choices,” Mr Moore said.
Acting general metro ambulance manager Adam O’Byrne said St John Ambulance had signed on to the PlusLife corporate challenge as they believed the issue of organ and tissue donation was a very important one.
“Our on-road people always strive to maintain life no matter how precarious the circumstances,” Mr O’Byrne said.
“We know a single organ and tissue donor can transform the lives of 10 or more people.
“We encourage everyone, not just St John people, to consider registering on the Australian Organ Donor Register, and in doing so, talking through the options with their loved ones.”
PlusLife managing director Anne Cowie said the corporate challenge aimed to get discussion happening in workplaces and in families.
“National statistics show that nine in 10 families agree to donation when their loved one is a registered donor,” Mrs Cowie said.
“But this figure drops to just five in 10 families when the deceased has not registered and relatives are not clear about their loved one’s wishes.”
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