PLEASE DONATE YOUR ORGANS!

Let's start with the message I hope to leave at the finish - PLEASE do not take your organs to heaven or the grave or wherever you believe you go when you die.

Every day of every week in every country on Earth, someone is dying because they need an organ transplant. Often, the transplant only buys them a few years or even months, but imagine what they can do or achieve in that time.

What did you do in the past two months that made you feel good or made others' lives better or happier? How about in the past year? The past 5 years?

Here's some inspiration, if you need it:

When Tianna was 18 months old doctors found two holes in her heart and two blocked arteries, faults that left her breathless and with a blue tinge to her skin. Over the years the condition worsened, leading to an ever-lengthening list of symptoms.

''Walking is really hard,'' Tianna said 18 months ago. ''I get heart palpitations, chest pains, nose bleeds. I get light-headed and get leg cramps and back pain. I'm in and out of hospital. I don't have much of an immune system.''

The illness had affected her social life, as it became hard to keep up with her friends.

''Sometimes, they end up carrying me,'' she said. ''I feel like I drag them back a bit because they have to walk slowly with me. I tell them to walk on and I'll walk just behind them at the back of the pack. It takes a toll on your self-esteem, trying to keep up with them and seeing everyone do stuff that you can't.''

Major surgery was necessary and the Ingleburn teenager became one of the 1700 Australians on waiting lists for organ and tissue transplants. She also became a face of the Journey of Hope campaign, aimed at getting Australians to discuss the issue and to encourage more people to register as organ donors. The campaign by Transplant Australia endeavours also to attract more funding to support people who are on waiting lists, organ recipients and their families.

Here's what I think is the saddest part of the donor/transplant story. According to this story in today's paper (I'll post the link), only 309 Australians donated organs last year. Close to 6 million Australians are on the Organ Donor Registry (in other words, they WANT to donate their organs and save lives) but only 58% of families allowed the organ and tissue donations to proceed. That means 42% of families stopped the donations from happening.

HOW DARE THEY!!!! How dare they go against their relatives wishes AND how dare they destroy what may be only possible chance another person has to have a better life  -or to have a life at all! 

HOW DARE THEY!!! If religion is the reason, then I am even angrier!

My drivers licence says I am a willing donor. My Will says I am willing donor. I have registered with the relevant web sites and organisations. And now this blog tells the world, if they care to read it, that I am a willing donor.  NO ONE has my permission to stop my organs or tissue being donated when I die.

Please, do all you can to make your wishes known. tell everyone. register with your local Transplant/Donation service or authority.

Please - don't take your organs with you when you die.

Tianna's story

Knit-wits rule!

From time to time I like to reminisce about days gone by (and, in the process, sound exactly like my parents did, thus boring the socks off of anyone under 40). Thanks to the changes I’ve seen in my lifetime – especially during my working years – I am the proud possessor of skills that are totally useless in 2012.

The short list is:

• I can (safely) tap a beer keg. Not the new ones, but the old fashioned type. These are the ones that, if badly managed, can result in injury or even death as the rod flies up and into your head (usually entering the head or, at best striking you very hard under the chin).
• I can change a ribbon on a manual typewriter.
• With a little bit of refresher practice, I think i can remember my copy fitting formulas, so that I can tell you how many words at a given font size will fit a given space.
• I still remember most of my proofreaders marks (and still use them, much to the confusion of my work colleagues who wonder why I wrote # and 'stet'  on their document.)
• I (vaguely) recall how logarithms work – and I can certainly do long division without a calculator.
• Although I never learnt how to cast on or cast off, I can knit – but I forget how to do pearl stitches.

I seem to recall there was a (shot lived) fad at primary school. A lot of boys were knitting in arts and craft classes and I recall that the needles were overly thick, perhaps to make it easier for kid’s fingers. I made a longish scarf, only because knitting a big long thing was all I could do.

It’s this last, lost skill that came to mind most recently, thanks to the ABC’s annual ‘Knit In’ promotion. I was still home from work and listened to a lot more radio than I would normally be able to and so, the annual ‘Knit In’ got more of my attention than usual.

The event was, as always, remarkably successful. More than 1,000 knitters headed along to the ABC studios in Sydney and beavered away knitting squares (I think they’re around 8” square or so), which are then packed up and sent off to be sewn together to make blankets.  These are sent overseas to people in need.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2012/08/04/3560598.htm

The ABC ‘Knit In’ was launched 10 years ago, to support the main initiative program, called ‘Wrap with Love. ‘Wrap with Love’ began in 1993 and, since then, over 255,000 wraps have been knitted (square by square), sewn together and sent off overseas.  There have also been around 8,000 distributed around Australia, with over 3,000 going to victims of the Victorian bushfires in 2009.

http://www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au/Wrap.htm

Here’s another of my special ‘likes’ – a lot of people doing relatively small things to make a real difference in the world. In the first year, the founder (the late Sonia Gidley-King OAM) and 30 supporters sent 38 wraps off to Mozambique in a container of farm machinery. So, the 250,000+ total is even more impressive!

They got into the spirit in my local are as well, as reported in The Leader.

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/knitting-warm-gifts-for-the-needy/2646982.aspx

Time to break out the knitting needles Trev! J

The real value of smaller things...............

I LOVE this stuff:).

All too often, the business world and people in general get themselves caught up with pictures that are just too big. I recently signed on for 'Dry July' and managed to raise $100; $40 of which came from generous donations from family and friends. Overall, 'Dry July' raised about AU$3.4 million, a lot of which came, I'm sure, from smaller fundraising efforts like my own. (See http://www.dryjuly.com/ ) 

In our local communities, there are stories every week about community groups needing relatively small amounts to get over tough times or even just to survive. Today's Leader contains a great story about one such organisation that's been saved because of the generosity of some locals. No huge donations were received, but the sum of the parts made up the lifesaving amount.

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/community-rushes-to-support-sylvanvale/2641903.aspx

The program that was in jeopardy was an after school hours care program for children aged 5 -11 who have 'high needs". Obviously, these special kids can't be looked after by just anyone outside of school hours. The tragedy was that the shortfall in funding was just $7,800 and, as one person wrote in the Comments section on the leader's website, it probably cost more for the decision maker (in a Government department) to make the decision that the $7,800 that they are refusing to provide.

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/children-in-jeopardy-special-care-may-be-axed/2628911.aspx

But, the money has been raised from the local community, proving yet again the value of local support in our communities.

I'm back at work next week and my mantra to anyone who'll listen will be "Think Locally and Act Locally" - because thinking globally won't help your, your business or your community anywhere near as much as entrenching yourself and your business in your local community will.

Nurses - part two.

My recent post about nurses deserves a big brother. The experience at RPA lasted around 48 hours and gave me a taste of what a ward nurse's life is like. I came home at the weekend after 7 days in Strathfield Private Hospital and wanted to provide a further insight into a nurse's life - from a patient's point of view.

OK, so details first. I was in for a partial nephrectomy. They cut you open (in my case, the incision is around 18" long) and remove the tumor from your kidney. They have to cut through 7 layers of muscle and all of those layers are stitched back together and have to heal. My operation was a complete success and, in fact, left me with more of my kidney (80%) than everyone hoped for.

Now, enter the nurses, as the recovery begins. This ward was made up of either urology patients like me or osteo patients (knee replacements, etc), so the recovery period, it seems, falls to fairly standard patterns and procedures. It begins the day after the operation, when they try to get you out of bed. This is for very good reasons, as congestion settles on your lungs very quickly and is an ideal breeding ground for infections. Just how easy it is to get one of these, I'll explain later.

Well Day #2 didn't go as planned and I couldn't get off the bed. Excruciating pain and I wanted to hit the next person who tried to get me up, but they came back and tried again in the afternoon - because it is SO important. It's important for fighting the congestion, but it's also important for other reasons. My second night was really uncomfortable, due to some friction grazes from the mattress and general  muscle aches from too long in bed.

Here's a tip for all you blokes reading this - the sooner you get up, the sooner the catheter comes out, ok?

Well day #3 saw be raise myself off the bed relatively easily, albeit painfully. Still needed a sponge bath in bed, but sat up in a chair and walked a little. Physio now becomes the most important person in my life, nagging me (necessarily) to get breathing deeply and to cough up phlegm. Ouch! (I'm writing this a full week later and coughing is still very painful). Day #3 also saw a temperature spike, because the bugs were loving my chestfull of muck that I hadn't been able to cough up yet.

From day #4, the nurses really come into their own. Now it's their job to get me up each day etc. The Ward Manager. Sister Hong is the sort of person every team needs as a leader. She led by example - "Do as I do" and is clearly respected by both her staff and the doctors. The catheter comes out (yay!) and is followed by my first shower, where I'm being treated with dignity and respect. By the end of the day I was using the toilet on my own.


I also had dressings changed and bandage-blisters tended too. Was the person gently removing the messy bandages and carefully tending to the painful open sores really the same person who was determined to drag me up off the bed on Sunday, despite my cries of "NO!!!"??


Another temperature spike on Day #5 brought on a stern lecture about the need to breath, walk and cough. Mixed with all of this Jekyll & Hyde personality came a person only a little younger than my self who would stop by for a chat briefly and we'd share stories of what it's like to manage Gen Y. A typical day for Sister Hong was 12 hours and, even on an unusually quiet Thursday, staff were set to work checking stores etc. It reminded my of a printing manager, taking advantage of some downtime to fit in some much needed maintenance.


The Ground Floor West team followed this example and went about their work in the most efficient and caring manner. I'm reminded of mothers with big families who can somehow keep an eye on 4 or 5 kids at the same time. They also cheerfully allowed my in-laws and Johnny's extended family to have a virtual picnic in the corridor when they came to visit me en mass. (They brought food, as always - I'm still nil by mouth at this stage. When I got out of bed the day after their visit, there are 2 cans of coke and 4 oranges beside my bed, in case I needed a snack during the night)


And so to my final day. I'm not allowed to leave until Sister has checked my dressings and given me her personal instructions about follow up care etc. Paperwork is brought down my another nurse and all is set to go. I'm waiting for my lift in the lounge outside reception, even though I was told I could stay in my room if I wanted to. As I said my final goodbye to Sister Hong and her team, I could sense a degree of distance already forming. I was going and there were sick people who needed her attention. I was a bit like a tradesman's finished work - no time to sit back and be satisfied, there's another urgent job to get on with.


And then, just when you think that chapter is closed completely, Sister Hong wanders over when she sees me pacing around the reception corridor (sitting for too long is a no-no, remember?). "You OK buddy? Need anything?".


No Sister, I'm fine thanks :). And it's thanks you and your team. Dr Sved did a great job on my operation ans the staff physio gave me some great self-help tools, but it's the nurses who made me well again.

Nurses definitely get counted amoungst Stuff that's good in the World' :)

A wonderful life - and then some!

This post is written right in the middle of NAIDOC Week. For anyone not reading this in Australia, here's an explanation:

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself.

There are a couple of reasons why this week of events is a bit special for me. Firstly, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established on the lawn outside what is now Australia's old Parliament House on my birthday in 1972 - January 27.  It started off a year of political awakening for me, as a 13 y o student, that culminated in the election of the Whitlam labor Government in November - and we all know how that ended a few years later!

The second and by now the most important reason that I like all that is associated with NAIDOC Week is the depth of local activities across local communities.  The list just from NSW alone has just over 70 events and activities across the state, most of them outside of the Sydney CBD and in suburban or regional communities and local government areas.

http://www.naidoc.org.au/naidoc-events/event/?mylist=New+South+Wales&check=Check

Some of the events are held outside of the week itself for a variety of reasons. Homebush Bay High School held their event early because NAIDOC Week itself falls during the school holidays, while at Blacktown; they have the Western Sydney NAIDOC Dinner dance on July 13.

There’s also a series of awards presented during the week and I was particularly taken by the story of the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Ned Cheedy. Ned Cheedy died in April this year, aged 105.

(I’m aware at this point that there may be some cultural sensitivity associated with writing or talking about aboriginal people who have passed on. I mean no offence and hope that I can be forgiven if I am breaking any cultural taboos here.)

I remember a conversation once with my ‘adopted’ grandpa, Pop Bresnahan. He was born early in the 20^th century and told me that, in his lifetime, man had conquered the power of flight and, by the time he was retiring from work, was sending men into outer space and had landed on the moon. Even in my own lifetime, we’ve seen the invention and introduction of cassette tapes to CD’s to MP3 players, mobile telephones that first looked like brick blocks and are now miniature and can have video and a myriad of other applications, Kodak instamatic cameras to multi megapixel digital cameras on mobile phones, etc. etc. etc.

But, imagine what Ned Cheedy saw in his 105 year lifetime! He spent pretty much all of his life in Western Australia, mainly in the Pilbara region. As an adult, he worked tirelessly to rehabilitate people addicted to alcohol, having seen first-hand the devastating effect it had on people’s lives and on families and communities.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/aborigines-lose-a-guiding-light-with-revered-elders-death-20120402-1w8ve.html

He traveled extensively in his region, educating students/children, archaeologists, anthropologists, environmentalists and biologists and helping them to gain a better understanding of the land that he called home. Importantly he was a vital link across generations. Family members who were elders when Ned was a child would have witnessed first-hand the early settlement of Australia and their parents would remember times before white people came to the country. His experiences and his ability to share them with others are a strong testimony to the value of older people in our communities.

I’m a little over half of Ned’s final age and I can’t imagine what the next 50 years will be like, if I could ever live so long. What’s GOOD about this story is that Ned was listened to, respected and recognised for his life, his experiences, his work and his contributions to society, even though I’m sure each one of those lives he helped would have seemed like a relatively small achievement to him.

Next time I’m asked: “Who, from history, would you invite to a dinner party at your place?” Ned will be on the list, along with my g. g. grandfather (the first of my ancestors to migrate to Australia from England) a few others.

Feel like commenting on this post? Tell me who you’d invite to your place.

Little by little - that's how the job gets done!

Wars are rarely won with just one major battle. Napoleon had his Waterloo of course, but that was the final battle in a long war.  The struggle to find cures for the various forms of cancer is another war that is being one, slowly but surely, but people in communities all over the world, raising their relatively small amounts of money to fund research, technology and ongoing care for cancer victims and their families.

I've written in an earlier post about Relay for Life. On the global scale, the Sutherland RFL is one very large example of an event that is held in communities world-wide. Few of them raise anywhere near the same amounts as this fantastic community event in the Sutherland and St George region, but all of them contribute much-needed funds to help with their common goal.

This post is intended to highlight just a few of those smaller events and activities happening at any one time around the world - each of which adds to the total ' war chest'. None of them are as well-known as the McGrath Institute, the PCI or Relay for Life and, thanks to their local community newspaper, they receive both recognition of and assistance in publicising their events and activities.

In Penrith, New South Wales: Young musicians get together to raise funds with a $10 per head concert.
http://www.penrithstar.com.au/news/local/news/general/young-musos-performance-to-fight-cancer/2598552.aspx

From Westchester County in  NY, USA: A local Relay for Life committee put a new twist on their event, with a Canine Relay for Life.
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=46080

In Ballarat, Victoria: Two students raise $3200 for the Ballarat Cancer Research Centre, the largest non-metropolitan cancer research centre in Australia.
http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/local/news/general/loreto-students-get-behind-cancer-centre/2598041.aspx

From Howick [it's pronounced 'Hoyck" folks :) ] in Scotland: Four sisters who have all survived breast cancer (one of them had it twice!) took part in their local version of RFL "Race for Life" in Dundee.
http://www.hawick-news.co.uk/news/scottish-headlines/sisters-take-part-in-charity-race-1-2360539

There are events like these happening every week, somewhere in the world. Little by little, this rotten illness is going to be cured one day.  My mum had polio as a youngster and, thank goodness, was able to walk unaided eventually. Polio is pretty much a thing of the past, certainly in Australia. Beating cancer CAN be done - but it's going to take time... and money!

It's finally over for Lindy Chamberlain

Like a lot of Australian’s – and probably people all around the world – I was sceptical of Lindy Chamberlain’s claim that a dingo stole baby Azaria in 1980. It all sounded so far-fetched and the media were generally anti-Lindy when it came to reporting the story.

There was wild speculation about Jehovah’s Witnesses and other 'non conformist'religions having strange rituals, about “Azaria” meaning something weird or strange in another language, the parent’s attitude and demeanor when interviewed or in court (sees Lindy’s comments about that in the story I’ve linked here by the way) and about the likelihood of a dingo being strong enough to carry off a nine week old baby anyway.

The one thing that stopped me from being ‘anit-Lindy’ was the element of a mother’s love for her baby. Azaria was not her first child and the pressures that new mothers face (post-natal depression, etc) didn’t seem to be a factor. The thought that Lindy could have murdered Azaria (with scissors, I think was the verdict) was just totally against common sense to me.

I have to admit, I was a bit of a coward when it came to this case. I avoided discussions where possible and felt really uncomfortable around people who had strong opinions either way on the matter. The case seemed to polarise society, with the majority believing in her guilt.

Both Lindy and her husband Michael were convicted. Appeals and court cases followed and the conviction was eventually quashed and she received around $1M in compensation. Her marriage broke up her family was split. At least one of her children has been severely emotionally affected by it (traumatised wouldn’t be too strong a word, it seems).

And now, 32 years after the event, a coroner has finally decreed that it was a dingo. So, why does my blog focussing on things that are good in the world contain a story about Lindy Chamberlain??

Read the story in the attached link. You’ve got to admire this woman and her attitude. She is congratulating a journalist/entertainer who apologised on-air for the way she judged Lindy and her husband. I don’t know about anyone reading this blog entry, but I think I’d have understood if Lindy had come out and said: “F*** the lot of you! How do you feel now you heartless bastards?”

Instead, she describes Wendy harmer as ‘courageous’ and complimented her for apologising.

And THAT’S one of the things that are good in the world today.

Sydney Morning Herald Story today