As new data reveals WA’s urgent need for more organ donors, Perth woman Clare Duggan shares her three-year-long journey of being on the waitlist, describing it like ‘being trapped inside your own body?’ Perth Now reports.
The 38-year-old has decided to open up about her experience, hoping to inspire more Australians to ‘donate a minute, donate a lifetime’.
DonateLife Week marks an important awareness-raising campaign for thousands of people who are either waiting for a life-saving organ transplant or whose lives could be transformed through organ or tissue donation.
As of 2023, there are about 1,800 people across Australia on the organ waitlist. And although 80 per cent of Australians are in support of organ and tissue donation, only seven million are registered — many experts say this number should be closer to 16 million.
Currently, 1,450 people are waiting for a kidney transplant and nine years ago, Clare Duggan was one of these individuals.
“It’s like a period of unending when you’re on the waitlist,” Ms Duggan said.
In August of 2012, Ms Duggan was diagnosed with renal failure that stemmed from her lifelong battle with type 1 diabetes, meaning she would need a kidney and pancreas transplant.
“But in 2010 it had worsened and I went into kidney failure. And soon after I was told I would need a new one, as well as a pancreas.”
Subsequently, the then 28-year-old was added to the waitlist. And it would be a three-year wait until Ms Duggan would receive a transplant — a period that she describes as “being trapped in your own body”.
For people on the waitlist who cannot receive a transplant from family or friends, DonateLife’s Western Australia Medical Director Dr Simon Towler says examples like Ms Duggan’s is why registering to become an organ donor is so important.
“Our key campaign message this year is: Donate a minute. Donate a lifetime, because we want to remind them it only takes one minute to register — and that minute could mean a lifetime to someone else.
FULL STORY
Clare Duggan: Perth woman's miraculous journey hopes to inspire Australians to register as organ donors (Perth Now)
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Clare Duggan, 38, decided to share her story during DonateLife Week in hopes to raise awareness about organ donation. Credit: Supplied.
