Surfside double organ donor recipient Brad Rossiter wants more lives to be saved by organ donation, and has a vital message for all considering donating theirs on the eve of Donate Life Week next week.
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“Most Australians understand the importance of organ donation, but most are not registered,” he said.
“If people want to donate their organs they need to register with the Australian Organ Donor Register and they need to tell their family about the decision and know that they agree to it, because they can overturn it.”
Donate Life Week runs from July 31 to August 7, Mr Rossiter will be at Bridge Plaza Batemans Bay with Radio 2EC distributing organ donation forms and information about donations next Friday.
“We will be there from 10am to 2pm and there will be Donate Life merchandise, balloons for the kids and free blood pressure checks,” he said.
Mr Rossiter received a kidney and pancreas in May 2007 and although he does not know the identity of the donor, he sends a letter to them via Donate Life each May to thank them for the decision, offer condolences for their loss and tell them about his campaigning for organ donation.
He understands that organ donation is “a huge thing to ask.”
“The person is brain-dead, and the surgeons and specialists make sure that there is no real life, that it is a machine that is keeping them alive,” he said.
Despite suffering the effects of diabetes, Mr Rossiter is at Bridge Plaza every Friday raising awareness of the importance of organ donation and kidney heath, and collecting donations for the Batemans Bay Hospital Auxiliary, which filters down to the Renal Unit at Moruya Hospital.
