The transplant community’s voice has never been stronger following the establishment of three important advisory groups to help Transplant Australia achieve its mission.
Late last year we invited our community to join advisory groups in Sport, Transplant Support & Education and Advocacy. We are delighted that 32 community members put up their hands to help, bringing a vast breadth of expertise, experience and passion to our cause.
It demonstrates the value Transplant Australia plays as the national professional voice, working positively to represent the needs of our community to governments, the healthcare care, and sports sectors.
Apart from our regular work on government submissions and speaking to the media with an informed and evidence-based approach about donation and transplantation, we also have three important representative roles on government committees and industry alliances.
Sports and Physical Activity Manager, Emmy O’Neill, provides the lived experience of a kidney transplant as a consumer representative on the Organ & Tissue Authority’s Transplant Advisory Group. The group, chaired by Professor Steve Chadban, has representatives from all the key transplant disciplines as well as nursing and donation specialists. It provides advice to the CEO of the OTA acting as an interface between the transplant and donation sectors and providing recommendations on emerging trends in transplantation. Kidney Health Australia also provides consumer representation on this group.
Manager, Stakeholder Engagement, Jo O’Farrell, brings her communications expertise to the Community Engagement Group which is another committee of the OTA. It works collaboratively to inform communications and engagement activities undertaken as part of the national program and is chaired by OTA Advisory Board member Mr Oren Klemich, a donor family member. Membership comprises representatives from a broad range of community organisations. These include organisations working to promote awareness of organ and tissue donation, including target audience groups such as First Nations peoples, young people and culturally and linguistically diverse groups.
CEO, Chris Thomas, has just been appointed as a Director of the Australian Sporting Alliance for People with a Disability, replacing Transplant Australia Director, Holly Tyrrell. The ASAPD is a new alliance of the eight disability sports including Blind, Deaf, Special Olympics and Sport Inclusion. It acts as a representative voice to government while also helping all Australians with a disability to engage in sport.
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