Fourteen years ago Dubbo footy figure Joe Knagge received a donation that saved his life.
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And he says it only takes a few seconds for others to do the same for someone else.
"Back in 1991 I was playing footy for the Dubbo Demons and in the off-season I was suddenly unwell and was rushed from the Dubbo Base Hospital to Sydney where they found out I had cardiomyopathy," he told the Daily Liberal.
"I dealt with that for about 18 years with medication but towards the end it was just getting worse - to the point where I had to have a heart transplant and have it really quickly."
Sunday, July 23 to Sunday, July 30 marks DonateLife Week, an annual campaign to encourage more Australians to get behind organ and tissue donation.
"Sometime after the transplant I communicated with the donor family through the Red Cross, which was anonymous, we swapped cards every year," he said.
"Reading between the lines I felt that it really helped that family's grieving process - they'd lost a son but knowing that a number of people may have been given life from that incident, including me, it really helped the family."
New data from DonateLife reveals the top local government areas for organ donation registration in NSW are Bellingen with 61 percent of eligible residents registered and the Blue Mountains with 60 per cent.
How do registration rates in the central west compare?
In the Dubbo council area only 47 per cent of eligible residents have registered for organ donation, slightly below the Bathurst and Mid-Western local government areas where half (50 per cent) are registered and Orange where 53 per cent are registered.
Mr Knagge said it was great to hear Dubbo was above the state average for organ donation registration, which sits at around 42 per cent of eligible residents.
"It would be even better to get the numbers up a little more too," he said.
"Registering with DonateLife saves your family that extra grief of making that decision - that's something the family doesn't have to worry as much about.
"There have been some massive improvements in the past 14 years - there's more professional training out in regional base hospitals for the retrieval process and there are counsellors now to engage with the families."
In 2022, 319 NSW residents received an organ transplant last year, and 122 NSW residents became organ donors.
There are currently around 1,800 people on the organ waitlist.
Danielle Fisher, the General Manager of the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service said Donate Life Week is the perfect time to consider giving the gift of life by becoming an organ and tissue donor.
"You can make a real difference to the many Australians waiting for an organ or tissue by registering and then telling your family," Ms Fisher said.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park agreed.
"NSW has the highest rate of registrations on the Australian organ donor registry but opportunities for transplants are often missed because families are uncertain of their loved one's wish to be a donor," Mr Park said.
"Organ donation saves lives and increasing awareness and consent is critical to lifting our donation rate."
Anyone aged 16 and over can register as an organ and tissue donor in just one minute at donatelife.gov.au or with three taps on the Medicare app.
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