The Essendon Football Club is proud to support Donate Life Week.

As part of a league wide partnership, the Club will support the Organ & Tissue Authority’s goal of improving access to life-transforming transplants for all Australians.

Donate Life Week runs from 30 July – 6 August and promotes online registrations via www.donatelife.gov.au

The Westwood family are big Essendon supporters and have experienced organ donation first hand. 

Quinnie and her Grandfather Rod were part of the Australian Paired Kidney Exchange Program (AKX) and had their surgeries last year.

Quinnie’s parents Clare and Jarrod were expecting identical twins and sadly lost one baby at 34 weeks. 

The trauma resulted in their daughter Quinnie losing a lot of oxygen that caused her to go into renal failure and she was on dialysis for two and a half years before she had her transplant.

For her to be eligible for transplant she had to be ten kilograms which was extremely difficult for the family as little Quinnie would vomit on average 10-20 times a day. 

When she finally made weight both Clare and her husband Jarrod and Quinnie’s grandfather Rod were tested to see if they were a direct match for Quinnie.

When the results came back negative they joined the AKX program. 

The match run revealed that there was a match for Rod so he donated his kidney to a complete stranger for his Granddaughter to receive a kidney. 

Quinnie took to her new kidney immediately and is now an energetic, three year old and they would not have it any other way.

Rod is also doing well after his surgery. 

To sign up to become a donor, please visit www.donatelife.gov.au