Yesterday, we went to a very special event…the DonateLife 2014 Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving.
The purpose of the Service is to provide a forum in which acknowledgement can be made to donors and their families. It is also a time that we who have our lives changed by organ and tissue donation can give thanks.
This was our second Service we have attended, and it is very emotional…there are feelings of loss and of joy, of grief and of celebration…
The hall was filled with donor families, and transplant recipients and their family/friends, plus staff who are involved in the organ donation process through to transplantation and the care beyond.
Some were there to remember those who are gone, and some were there to celebrate the return to living life.
There were tears….and laughter…
Five speakers talked at the service…
Two donors were represented….a father who had lost his 16 year old daughter only months ago….his grief was raw, real and heartbreaking….and a wife who had lost her husband about two years ago.
Both spoke about their decision to allow organ donation…that it was what their loved ones wanted.
And two recipients spoke…ironically both liver transplant recipients, and both suffered from the same autoimmune disease that my husband has…Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC).
After they had told their stories, the four of them joined together to cut the cakes…one in remembrance of the donors, and one on behalf of the recipients…
There was also a professional speaker…Dr Helen Opdam…who is the Victorian Medical Director of Organ and Tissue Donation for DonateLife Victoria as well as an Intensive Care Specialist at the Austin Hospital and Director of Intensive Care at the Warringal Hospital.
She works long hours, and is often assisting families in the time of terrible grief, but she spoke about how she loves being part of the organ donation process. She is proud of being able to make a difference, and is in awe of those who also work in this field.
And so are we….without people like Dr Opdam, organ donation would not happen, and people like my husband would not be alive and well today.
Attending this Service also brings home the fact that my husband is alive due to the generosity of a family making the decision to allow organ donation…and that somewhere, a family are grieving for their loved one….they may have even been at the Service yesterday…
Its hard because as a recipient, you are torn between relief and joy at seeing a loved one who was so sick being able to return to living and loving life, and sadness that someone has died….
At the end of the service, we all have the opportunity to light tapers…
Going to the Service was was even more special for us as we spent most of the day with a group of other liver recipients and their partners…these people have become our good friends, and we always have a fabulous time when we get together.
It is so great to see them all looking so well…if you look at the group of us, you wouldn’t know who had had a liver transplant and who hadn’t!
And it was through transplantation that we were all brought together…like it was meant to be!
We were also able to catch up with some of the Austin Liver Transplant Unit staff who look after my husband so well…both pre transplant, during recovery and his path back to good health…it is like belonging to a large, caring family…not one that you would chose to join, but I am very happy and honoured that we have them keeping us under their care.
If you haven’t had the conversation about organ donation with your loved ones, please…do it now…
For more information about organ donation in Australia, click here to visit DonateLife