Two tell of their gift of life

Two tell of their gift of life

Miriam Raphael

26Feb10

RIGHT now, more than 1700 people are waiting for organ transplants that could save their lives. Three of these people live here.
Australia is a world leader in successful transplants but only 247 people donated their organs last year. Organ and tissue donation nurse at Alice Springs Hospital, Andrea James, said most people supported organ donation but 40 per cent of families did not consent to donation because they did not know their loved one's wishes.
During Organ Donation Awareness Week, Australians are being encouraged to `discover, decide and discuss' their wishes with family about organ and tissue donation.
What organ donation means to Central Australians
Meet Howard Smith and Ross Butcher, kidney recipients, who want to share their stories in the hope more local people will consider giving the gift of life.

Howard Smith, Lutheran Pastor from Docker River
I had kidney trouble and moved to Alice Springs for renal dialysis in October 2004. It was a big change, everything was new to me. Marlene, my wife, also had to leave the community and come and live with me. We got home sick a lot of times.
I had my name on the donation list for quite a while. When Andrea came and told me the new kidney was coming, I was really excited and my family was very happy. I just wanted to get off dialysis. It made me think that I could go back home and spend time with my family and country.
I had renal that night, and the next day I was on my way to Adelaide on the Doctor plane. By the time I got there, everyone was waiting for me. Bang, straight away. I had the kidney transplant on November 25, 2007. Election day.
I was back in Docker River before Christmas. Everyone was shocked. After they saw me, all the renal people wanted to see Andrea that day and get on the transplant list.
I reckon I got a second chance when I got this kidney. It has changed a lot for me. I feel so much better. Before, I couldn't go anywhere, because every morning I had to clean my blood. Now I've got a lot of freedom. It has allowed me to do whatever I want. We often have Lutheran Church courses, so we go away for a week to our training. I couldn't do that before. I am not sure who I got the kidney from, but it saved my life.
I'm very healthy and I try to look after myself, and my kidney. I'm doing regular exercise, eating the right food. It comes back to responsibility. I have to play a role in doing the right thing, take the tablets. I don't drink alcohol and after the transplant I stopped smoking.
When I see people going to renal, I talk to them and tell them to do the right thing. Sometimes I go around and talk to people about donating kidneys and giving blood. We should all be thinking about donating kidneys to people who are sick, because it's going to change their life. I wanted to talk to the paper, to tell people you can give life to someone.

Ross Butcher, Central Australian tour guide, now living in Darwin
I've got IgA nephropathy, a technical term for a disease that was caused by a viral infection. I had really bad tonsillitis when I was a kid. They never took my tonsils out and I was in and out of hospital for 12 months, taking huge doses of penicillin.
Got to the age of 17, woke up one night, in excruciating pain. My kidneys were bleeding. By 24, I was on dialysis. I waited eight years for a transplant.
It's a pretty shocking state of affairs, being on a dialysis machine. You don't have much energy and you're restricted by what you can eat and drink, to the point of it being ridiculous.
It's debilitating. You can't travel. I once won an environmental award, and I got sent down to Melbourne to a Landcare conference to hear David Suzuki speak. I was down there for three days, but two of those three days I was in the hospital.
One of the hardest things was if I went out with my friends, girls just never noticed me. I just couldn't put any energy out, so I didn't get anything back. So that was difficult to deal with.
The worst part about being on the transplant list is waiting for so long and when the phone rings, you always wish that someone is on the other end saying, `we've got an organ for you.'
So when I got that phone call I was so excited. I just couldn't get my head together to pack, so I ended up at the hospital with a bag with virtually nothing in it.
I was in hospital for about 14 days. I got out of there at 9am, and I was back in the hospital at 4.30pm, because I was racing down the street with way too much energy on a push bike, and fell off and broke my wrist!
Not long after my transplant I headed over to the Kimberley and worked as a tour guide. Then I went to the snowfields for a season, taught myself how to snowboard, before heading to Central Australia, doing walking tours with Trek Larapinta in Alice Springs. Last year I went to France and trekked the highest mountain in Europe, Mont Blanc.
Every two years or so I write a letter to the Red Cross and they send it on to my donor's family. They know exactly what I've been up to during the past 10 years. It is a fantastic thing, that a family can sit down and decide they're going to give a gift to somebody they'll never, ever meet. It's totally selfless.

http://www.centralianadvocate.com.au/article/2010/02/26/6385_news.html