NPO Tell encourages potential organ donors to tell their families
Non-profit organization, Transplant Education for Living Legacies volunteers ended their six-day walk at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Parktown.
A six-day expedition that aimed to raise awareness and funds in support of organ and tissue donation ended at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Parktown.
The expedition kicked off at Hartbeespoort on July 18 and finished on July 23 after the two participants walked a distance of about 84km.
Lizl Pistorius and Monica Le Roux’s journey was not only a personal challenge for them but also a means to raise funds and awareness for Transplant Education for Living Legacies (Tell), a non-profit and public benefit organisation dedicated to promoting organ donation.
Pistorius, who has donated a kidney, said they wanted to help people requiring organ transplants. “If you want to be an organ donor, please sign up and then let your family know because they have the last say,” she said.
One of the co-founders of Tell, Alice Vosloo said the organisation was turning five this year and the NPO aimed to reduce the waiting list by providing transplant education to the general public and medical sectors.
How the process of organ retrieval works
Managing director of Tell Stella de Kock who started in 2019 as a volunteer, thanked sponsors and individuals who contributed to the walk’s success. De Kock who has been on the waiting list for a kidney since 2012 and is on dialysis said, “For a recipient, you need to be sick enough to get onto the list and also healthy enough to withstand a transplant. Your other co-morbidities are considered before being given a transplant. If you stop taking your anti-rejection medication and then the kidney fails, then you’re back on dialysis again. So you’re always going to have a chronic condition.”
She said one could be a registered organ donor but if their family did not give their consent, then the process could not happen.
Transplant coordinator Sinesha Moodley said extensive tests, which can take months, were done to make sure that every potential donor meets the criteria to donate and that there would be no risk imposed on the donor.
“We screen them but that doesn’t mean they will end up being a donor. If one is accepted as a donor, then there is a lot of cross-matching that happens to make sure that they are compatible with the recipient.
“Then there is extensive workup [diagnostic examination of a patient], and anywhere in that workup, a donor can become unsuitable. People might have diabetes or hypertension or any other diseases they don’t even know about and during the process, we find that out, then you can be deemed unsuitable and that is mainly to protect the health of the donor,” Moodley said.
Keeping healthy after an organ transplant is important
Dr Alta Withers of the Gauteng Transplant Sports Association said their mission and vision was to provide a platform for people who have had an organ transplant to be more active through sport and live a healthier life.
She also encouraged walking as it was good for your cardiac health. Withers said, “It also boosts your immune system, is important for your emotional well-being and it is also just amazing to be outside viewing our beautiful world. The recommendation from the World Health Organisation is that people be active three to four times a week for at least 40 minutes where you elevate your heart rate through exercise.”
A word from an organ recipient
Dave Moodley, who has been living with a donated organ for 28 years, said it had changed his life. “I have taken part in transplant games, cycling, and walking. Just be positive because some people are sceptical and think that if they receive an organ that is the end of it but for most, it is the beginning of life.
Share your comments on Facebook at Rosebank Killarney Gazette
Related articles:
