The Australian & New Zealand Organ Donation Registry has released organ donation and transplantation data for the first half of the year.

We continue to see steady improvement with 168 generous families agreeing to donate their loved one's organs, resulting in 495 people receiving life saving surgery.  The ACT has had four multi organ donors to date while NSW has had 36 donors.

The report to 30 June 2011 is available here.

The families of the 309 organ donors in Australia in 2010 deserve our thanks.  It was a record year for organ donation and these donations saved or improved the lives of 931 Australians.  The Australian Capital Territory also had a record year with ten multi organ donors, which equates with 28 donors per million population - the highest in Australia.  

A full report is available here.

The Hon Catherine King, MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Health & Ageing has paid tribute to Australia's organ donors today and her press release is here.  Gift of Life's press release is available here.  The press release from Ms Katy Gallagher, MLA, ACT Health Minister, is available here.