I have always believed in the philosophy that the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho so aptly describes in his book The Alchemist. The book is a fable about following your dreams and he points out that if we are following our destiny, then nature will conspire to make it happen and will show us signs, omens and pointers to confirm that we are in fact on the correct path. Well, so it was recently that when I visited a movie theatre and saw the Organ Donation Awareness Trust advert on the back of the toilet door. I just could not ignore the signs anymore. I am now pleased to be a very new and very inexperienced volunteer, but already my joy, personal growth and learning curve has been tremendous after getting involved with this vibrant, passionate and focused organization.

I became aware of the importance of getting people to talk about organ donation 4 years ago. My crazy, lively, happy, 14 year old sun-being daughter went for a standard blood test and 5 days later my heart just ached as she lay pale, withdrawn in a fetal position in her darkened room, totally depressed.  The blood tests revealed an unusual high Creatine level and further tests revealed severely scarred kidneys and a degenerative kidney disease. The specialist informed us that she had no more than 2 years to enjoy life and thereafter she would be connected to dialysis machines as a 16 year old and would need to wait for a kidney transplant. She was also told that she would never be able to have children as it could cause severe kidney trauma.

My daughter is now 18 years and she has an altered prognosis of reaching 30 years before the dialysis treatment may be needed and an inevitable transplant would need to take place. She lives life to the absolute fullest of her ability and is looking forward to enrolling at Otago University next year to further working towards part of her destiny!

My journey with her has however raised the issue of the poor track record we have in New Zealand with organ donation and that we need to raise the awareness of the need to have “The Talk” about donating organs before it is too late. It is such an incredible gift that one human can give 7 to 10 others and truly turns a time which is horrific for those involved in losing a special someone into some glimmer of positive outcome. I look forward to working hard on this worthy cause….  
 

Wilna Fourie June 2009