You might have heard recently that the UK has lifted their ban on gay men donating blood.  This hasn’t happened in Australia yet, and who knows if and when it will, but there is another way that people can make a difference to the lives of severely ill adults and children.  You can become an organ donor. True, you can’t actually do it until you die, but we’re all headed there one day.

There are many people, including children, waiting desperately for organs such as kidneys, hearts and livers. Many of these people will die waiting for transplants. There are simply not enough donors for them all.

Organs can often be donated if a person has died due to trauma, such as a traffic accident. Sadly this is one of the commonest causes of death in young men.

If you want to be able to donate your organs, you need to register with the Australian Organ Donor Register, which you can do at the medicare website.  You can specify which organs or tissues you would like to donate. It’s important to talk about it with your family or next of kin, as they need to give the final OK before a donation can occur.

You might think this is a rather morbid topic, but the truth is that none of us know when our time is going to be up. If you’ve given it some thought and decided to register as a donor, you can make an amazing difference to the lives of many others even as your own light is fading. Nice way to go out.

For more information about organ donation or to register yourself as a donor, please visit www.donatelife.gov.au