Organ donor, transplant services push for bush

Goulburn-based beef producer Lydon Olsson wants to drive organ donation onto the big stage, so he has got behind the Herd to Hope charity event for organ donation, to take place later this year.

Mr Olsson, diagnosed at an early age with kidney failure, received a transplant in 1984 at eight years old from a donor who died in a motorcycle accident.

“There is a need for more services in country areas for a range of issues like ongoing counselling for pre-and-post organ donation for affected families,” he said.

The Herd of Hope aims to raise funding to services like transplant care nurses and counselling in regional Australia, as well as an independent study of organ donation in regional donation.

It will be the first ever cattle drive across the dormant Travelling Stock Route gazetted on the Harbour Bridge. Mr Olsson is helping to organise the event, and will provide Angus cattle for the drive. His brother works for Clipex, which will provide stockyards to train the cattle, and on the big day on the Bridge.

Mr Olson said counselling services critical.

“Like all recipients, I’ve had some good and bad times along the way. It’s not always easy to chat with the people you know. It is very hard to make a decision about donation from a family member. It can make a massive difference if there are services on hand to prepare people.

“It’s also an issue that impacts the whole family. When a kid has a transplant, the parents’ attention focuses on the sick child, which affects their siblings. The parents don’t do that on purpose, but those mental health impacts to the recipient family need to be recognised.”

Michelle Seccull is another Herd for Hope volunteer who was motivated to lend a hand by personal experience. Her three-year old son Ethan was tragically killed by a passenger train on tracks behind the family house near Ballarat, Victoria.

She said the family donated Ethan’s organs to prevent another parent having to hear the news they had to bear after Ethan was airlifted to hospital following his accident.

She said increasing country people’s access to support services would encourage people “to have those conversations that need to happen”.

“We’re tough and get on and do the job the that needs to be done, but we do it to the detriment of our mental health.”

SUPPORT from across the country for the Herd of Hope charity drive for organ donation has been “amazing”, says organiser Megan McLoughlin.

She is the driving force behind charity cattle drive, taking a herd across the Harbour Bridge, to promote awareness for organ donation and raise fund for transplant recipients and donor families in the bush. 

“It’s such a morbid subject, but we haven’t received a single negative comment. There is just so much hope out there. It makes us realise with such a challenging thing as organ donation that we privileged there are so many good people to support us.”

Support has flooded in, she said, with offers to help from individuals, families and businesses touched by organ donation, or inspired by the initiative.

“People are also sharing their stories about organ donation with us, which we love reading. We are using the information to help develop regional services.”