Today is the start of DonateLife Week (23–30 July), and Canberrans are encouraged to register as organ and tissue donors.

The message of this year’s campaign is Donate a Minute, Donate a Lifetime. It only takes one minute to register as a donor, and a single organ donor can save up to seven lives.

“If you haven’t gotten around to registering your donation wishes, now more than ever is the time to do it,” said Nadia Burkolter, manager of DonateLife ACT. She coordinates all organ and tissue donor activities in the ACT. “It will take you less than a minute. but may give several Australians a lifetime.”

This DonateLife Week also prompts people to have a conversation with friends and families about their wishes for organ donation.

ACT health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith, herself a registered organ and tissue donor, said this is an important, but not an easy, conversation to have.

“If you are willing to be an organ donor, it is important that you are registered and have had a conversation with your family and made your wishes known.  

“The likelihood of a family consenting to donation increases significantly when the donor’s intentions were made known to them. Registering online and letting your family know your wishes can make a very difficult conversation, at a very difficult time, a little easier…

“It could mean the world to someone else.”

Around 1,800 Australians are desperately waiting for organ donations, while thousands more are on dialysis.

Four out of five Australians support organ and tissue donation, but only 36 per cent are registered to be a donor on the Australian Organ Donor Register.

The ACT is below the national average: 27 per cent of Canberrans are registered. Nearly 5,000 new registrations were recorded in the ACT last year.

“The previous three years have been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with impacts to organ and tissue donation and transplantation seen across Australia and globally,” Ms Stephen-Smith said. “Despite these challenges, Australians continue to publicly support donation.

“In the ACT, 29 lives were saved last year through the generosity of 10 families who consented to their loved ones becoming an organ donor. A further nine lives were transformed through eye tissue donation.

To acknowledge DonateLife Week, several iconic Canberra monuments will be lit up in magenta tones. The Carillon, Old Parliament House, John Gorton Building, Telstra Tower, light rail stops, the Canberra Times Fountain, Malcolm Fraser Bridge, National Museum of Australia, the ANU Shine Dome, and the Royal Australian Mint will all be lit up at various points throughout the week.

Information stalls will be held across Canberra throughout the week; Action bus drivers will wear bright DonateLife caps; and part of the bus fleet will be wrapped in DonateLife Week messaging.

To register as an organ donor, visit donatelife.gov.au.