Carmel Podosky, a secretary in our Mackay office has for twelve years, with the assistance of her mother Bernadette Attard, organised the Annual Organ Donor Family Thanksgiving service.
The 2014 service was recently held at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, West Mackay. This is an ecumenical service held on behalf of organ donor recipients and their families to thank the families who have made the ultimate sacrifice and donated their family member’s organs so that others will have a second chance at life.
Carmel organised the first one of these services twelve years ago and has organised it each year thereafter as a way of thanking the donor families. It was a personal endeavor for her as a result of the fact that her husband and her youngest son, Joel, received a lifesaving liver transplant in February 2000 when he was 13 months old.
Without the liver transplant Joel had only a month to live.
If not for the wonderful care and skill of the transplant surgeons and teams, and the organ donors and their families, children like Joel and thousands of others would not receive this second chance at life. No amount of gratitude will ever be enough thanks for these wonderful people, but the Thanksgiving service is a way of expressing that gratitude in a small way.
Carmel in fact started work with Macrossan & Amiet on the 3rd December 1979, and started off as an office junior and message girl. She progressed through to a Senior Secretary working for John Formosa and continuing full time employment at Macrossan & Amiet until the birth of her and Ian’s first son, Luke, in 1993.
Carmel came back and worked at Macrossan & Amiet on a part-time basis after having her three children. However, when Joel was born on the 1 January 1999 he was diagnosed, at a very young age, with bilary artresia and then Carmel and Ian and their family had to wait anxiously for the donation of a
lifesaving liver. In fact Carmel lived in Brisbane for many months awaiting the liver donation.
Carmel’s late father, Jim Attard was the recipient of a kidney in 1990 which was life changing for him. Jim’s operation was only two weeks before Carmel and Ian’s wedding in 1990.
Carmel and her family are forever thankful for the huge sacrifice that Joel’s donor family have made which has meant that Joel is now a high school student who loves golf, has a great sense of humour and a joy to his family (most of the time!).
If anyone is interested in becoming an organ donor you should advise your family of your wishes and register with the
Australian Organ Donor Register
http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/medicare/australian-organ-donor-register.
