The annual DonateLife Walk, organised by Gift of Life, is on again on Wednesday 22 February 2012 and thousands of Canberrans are expected to take part to show their support for organ and tissue donation. The event is sponsored by the Organ and Tissue Authority.

The walk is the main Canberra community event during national DonateLife Week, which runs from 19 to 26 February 2012. During this week, all Australians are encouraged to ask and know their loved ones' wishes about organ and tissue donation. This is because in Australia the family will always be asked to confirm the donation wishes of the deceased before donation for transplantation can proceed.

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The DonateLife Book of Life: A collection of life-saving and life-changing stories from people touched by organ and tissue donation contains stories of hope about donation written by everyday Australians.

Recently, awards were presented to those colleges represented by large numbers of senior students at the DonateLife Walk which Gift of Life organised in February 2011.  Over 1800 people took part in the walk and the students made up a significant proportion of the participants.

Gift of Life President David O'Leary, accompanied by Vice President Bill Handke, addressed the senior assemblies of six colleges - 

• St Clare's College
• Canberra Grammar School
• Canberra Girls' Grammar School
• Daramalan College
• Marist College
• Merici College 

with a total of around 6,000 students present.  The Colleges were given framed certificates recognising and expressing appreciation for the strong and enthusiastic involvement of their schools at this year's walk.

David O'Leary (l) and Bill Handke (r) present St Clare's certificate to Ellen Stokes, School Captain.

The Walk promotes the need for increased organ and tissue donation.   It encourages people to learn the facts about organ and tissue donation, to discuss it with their families and to know each other's wishes and, after deciding, to sign on to the Australian organ and tissue donor register which is managed by Medicare.  By increasing consent rates, many more Australians lives can be saved.

We warmly congratulate all six colleges on their well deserved awards !

The Parliamentary Secretary released the mid point implementation review of Australia's efforts to increase organ donation.  In her press release, Ms King said that the national reform agenda had made significant progress.   

The Government's detailed response to the review was released at the same time and itemises progress in the nine areas of reform.

The Hon. Catherine King, MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Health, recently released a new resource to help Australians overcome barriers to discussing organ and tissue donation.  In launching the resource, Ms King said that it will be a valuable resource.  She noted that it was developed by Gift of Life with a community awareness grant.

Community speakers are urged to undertake volunteer training through DonateLife ACT.  A copy of the resource is available at the DonateLife website. 

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 new DonateLife campaign commenced on 5 June with the them of To donate life, ask them today.  OK?

The advertisement that has been running on television stations throughout the country can be viewed at the DonateLife website.

The Parliamentary Secretary's speech at the launch of the new campaign is available here.

The Chief Minister and Patron of Gift of Life, Jon Stanhope, has recognised six Canberrans for their outstanding contribution to organ and tissue donation awareness.  The ceremony, organised by Gift of Life with the support of DonateLife and ACT Health, was the last major activity during DonateLife week.

The recipients are:

• Ms Gai Brodtmann, MP, who received the Annette Taylor Award for Community Service
• Ms Genevieve Jacobs was awarded the Angus Fairbairn-Cody Award for Media Support
• Mr Steve Williams was awarded the Matthew Reynolds Award for Community Service
• Ms Karen Oliver received the Ben Wiseman Award for Health Care
• The Belconnen Chapter of the Canberra Lions Club received the Jenny Deck Award for Community Support
• Ms Anne Cahill Lambert was the recipient of a special award for outstanding contribution.

It was a glorious morning for more than 1,800 Australians to participate in the DonateLife walk on Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011.  Gift of Life again organised the walk with the support of the Australian Organ & Tissue Donation & Transplant Authority.

Building on the success of previous years, the DonateWalk gave participants to embrace the national message for DonateLife week:  Any day is a good day to discuss organ donation.
 
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l-r  Students from St Clare's College assist The Hon. Kevin Rudd, MP, The Hon. Catherine King, MP, Ms Katy Gallagher, MLA, Mr Stephen Jones MP and Mr David O'Leary to launch the DonateLife Walk. (photo IDPhoto.com.au)

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.