DonateLife Week 2011

What is DonateLife Week?

The first DonateLife Week will take place from Sunday 20 - Sunday 27 February 2011.

DonateLife Week is Australia's national awareness week to promote organ and tissue donation.

During DonateLife Week, the organ and tissue sector will be holding a range of events to encourage Australians to set time aside during the week to talk about organ and tissue donation.

Click here to see what DonateLife Week events are happening in your area.

Goal for the Week

The goal for DonateLife Week 2011 is to encourage all Australians to talk about organ and tissue donation and to discuss their donation decision with the people closest to them.

During this Week, DonateLife will be focused on encouraging all Australians to talk about organ and tissue donation, share their stories and wishes about organ donation and generate family and close friend discussion.

Launch of DonateLife Week 2011

Australia's first DonateLife Week was today launched by the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, the Hon Catherine King MP Read the media release or Read the speech

At the launch, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Ms Quentin Bryce AC was named as Australia's inaugural DonateLife Ambassador. The Governor-General launched the DonateLife Book of Life. Read Her Excellency'sspeech here.

Mrs Robyn Gough shared the story of daughter Melody who saved the lives of three people through her act of organ donationRead Melody's story

The national launch was held at the National Library of Australia and the official hosts were Ms Yael Cass, Chief Executive Officer of the Organ and Tissue Authority and Acting Director General of the National Library, Dr Warwick Cathro.

The event took place in the presence of many donor families, transplant recipients and supporters of organ and tissue donation.