Ray Maota
Add this green ribbon to your Facebook profile image to show your support for organ donation. Organ donation and transplantation is represented internationally with a symbolic green ribbon. (Image: Flickr)
August is Women’s Month as well as Organ Donation Awareness Month and the awesome foursome of Love Life; Gift Life are on a mission to combine both elements in their newest campaign.
Fawn Rogers, Siobhan Scallan, Shaylene Perry and Alice Voigt founded Love Life; Gift Life to heighten the level of organ donor awareness in South Africa.
On 7 July, the foursome led the Save 7 Lives campaign on International Save 7 Lives Day to much success on social media. The campaign trended globally on Twitter.
ORGust Campaign
Their recent campaign, aptly named the #ORGust Campaign, is about the stories of unsung heroes of organ transplantation – specifically, stories of the women making a real impact.
These are the stories of nurses, transplant coordinators, surgeons, doctors, psychologists, specialists, physiotherapists, academics and activists.
Perry said the campaign will recognise the efforts made by these healthcare professionals in involved in organ transplants. “No transplant patient would be here today, if it were not for the extensive team of people, so often behind the scenes, making miracles happen.”
Besides showcasing women working in transplantation, Perry said the organisation hopes all South Africans can show their support for Organ Donation Awareness Month.
Love Life, Gift Life is encouraging South Africans to add a green ribbon – an international symbol for organ donation and transplantation – to their Facebook profile image this month.
“We are all well aware of the reach social media has,” said Perry. “And after our successful #Save7Lives campaign went viral, we are optimistic that this campaign will also have a great impact within the online community.
“By showing their support with the green ribbon, people are not only creating awareness for the cause but will undoubtedly give much needed hope to the thousands of disheartened patients awaiting a lifesaving transplant.”
To show your support click HERE and add a green ribbon to your profile.
Personal journeys
The four women who founded Love Life; Gift Life needed lung transplants for various reasons. Getting donor lungs and starting recovery has been a joyful experience.
Fawn Rogers (Bi-lateral Lung Transplant Recipient- top left); Shaylene Perry (Single Lung Transplant Recipient- top right); Alice Vogt (Bi-lateral Lung Transplant Recipient- bottom left); and, Siobhan Scallan (Bi-lateral Lung Transplant Recipient- bottom right) are the founders of Love Life; Gift Life. (Image: Love Life; Gift Life)
Rogers was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at a young age and had not been able to live a normal life until she got a donor in 2013.
“The recovery was difficult but since I’ve been out I’ve had a completely new life. I have gone from being bedridden with tubes, relying on my mom, to working full-time,” she said.
“I enjoy mundane things like going out for coffee and relaxing with friends and family. They also seem very happy to be able to do that with me.”
Perry, who fell ill when she was 27, said: “My joy comes from now being able to be a mother and wife. There were years that going up the stairs was a mission and my daughter always knew mommy as being sick. Now I can be a mother to her.”
