The Hon Ged Kearney MP
Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care
The Australian Government has today kicked off its Great Registration Race for DonateLife Week campaign to urge 100,000 more Aussies to sign up as organ and tissue donors.
The campaign runs throughout July and August with a big push in DonateLife Week: Sunday 24 July to Sunday 31 July.
With around 1,750 people on the organ transplant waitlist, more can be done to encourage our friends, family, and colleagues to register as donors. There are also a further 13,000 Aussies on dialysis, many who may benefit from a kidney transplant. Just one organ donor can save up to 7 lives.
And while 4 in 5 Australians say they support organ donation, only one in three people are registered organ and tissue donors. This leaves 13 million Australians aged 16+ who are eligible to register, but haven’t.
Launching the Great Registration Race for DonateLife Week campaign today, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, The Hon. Ged Kearney MP, said sport was a clear way to connect with Australians who may not otherwise know to register as organ and tissue donors.
Official DonateLife partners, AFL club Western Bulldogs and NRL team Melbourne Storm, helped kick off the campaign today by meeting little Chloe Loo-Tandiyono, 5, who had a liver transplant in Melbourne as a baby.
This month, players from both teams will feature in new digital ads and appear throughout the campaign in a show of support for the thousands of Australians whose lives depend on receiving an organ donation, and the many more whose lives would be transformed through tissue donation.
Former Brisbane Broncos star Sam Thaiday is also using his sporting profile to help raise awareness. As part of the campaign launch this week, he’s releasing a new six-part podcast series ‘A gift worth giving’, supported by a DonateLife Community Awareness Grant.
It only takes one minute to sign up at donatelife.gov.au or just 3 taps in your Express Plus Medicare app.
Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister Kearney
“I’m thrilled to be launching the Great Registration Race for DonateLife Week. Organ and tissue donation is a cause close to my heart. As a nurse I saw firsthand the life-saving benefits organ donation gives to people like little Chloe.”
“We are a proud sports-loving nation, and it’s great to see our professional players and teams getting behind DonateLife.”
“It’s great to see teams like the Western Bulldogs, Melbourne Storm and sports legends stars like Sam Thaiday getting behind the Great Registration Race for DonateLife Week and I hope all Australians do, too.”
