By Tanya Steele
It’s DonateLife Week and new data has revealed Victoria’s urgent need for more organ and tissue donors, donor-recipient Anthony Breslin tells journalist TANYA STEELE of his journey through illness and donation.
The renowned Melbourne artist Mr Breslin received a kidney transplant from his friend Tony and lives today because of it – Australia’s 13th annual DonateLife Week runs from Sunday 28 July, until Sunday 4 August.
“It was an amazing experience – I really can’t put into words, the impact,” said Mr Breslin.
“Having a relationship with the guy who I’m carrying his organs in my body, it is keeping me alive and the transplant went superb,” he said.
DonateLife Victoria State Medical Director Dr Rohit D’Costa said dedicated organ donation teams across Victoria work tirelessly to maximise every opportunity to save a life through transplant.
“The reality is, there simply aren’t enough donors in Victoria to match the waitlist. This DonateLife Week, I’m urging everyone in Victoria to please register as an organ and tissue donor,” he said.
In 2014, Mr Breslin was diagnosed with a form of blood cancer that then became an acute leukaemia myeloid (AML). The bone marrow makes a large number of abnormal blood cells and the condition becomes worse very quickly.
“I became very weak, I was dying within a week, I lost my voice. I couldn’t speak – I could hardly walk,” said Mr Breslin.
“I had to get rushed into hospital and put on chemotherapy,” he said.
Chemotherapy put Mr Beslin in remission, and he then, fortunately, received bone marrow from a donor to save his life but later developed a disease known as ‘chronic graft versus host disease’ (GVHD) in response to the transplant.
GVHD occurs when transplanted donor cells recognise the recipient’s tissues as foreign and attack them
“I was lucky to get a donor, but unfortunately I’ve suffered ever since because I now can’t walk properly,” he said.
“I can’t do a lot of things.”
Treatment for the disease put a strain on Mr Breslin’s kidneys and he had trouble for many years, and he was on and off dialysis.
Ultimately, Mr Breslin’s kidneys began to fail and unbeknownst to him, his sister had put a call out on social media to save his life – the artist said he could never have asked that of anyone.
“Eight people came forward to give me a kidney, which was the record at Alfred Hospital,” said Mr Breslin.
“They tested all of them and all but one were eventually all rejected for different reasons, including my sister,” he said.
One final anonymous donor remained active in the system and turned out to be a match.
Mr Breslin was in hospital preparing for his kidney transplant, when he accidentally bumped into his sister-in-law’s brother, Tony, at the hospital.
It was then Anthony realised Tony was to be the donor to save his life.
“I always got along well with him – I said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Tony?’ And he said, ‘I’m the anonymous donor’ and that’s when I just lost it,” said Mr Breslin.
In Victoria in 2023, 40,454 people are registered as organ and tissue donors, 142 people became organ donors after they passed away and 361 people received organ transplants.
Victoria urgently needs more organ and tissue donors and there are currently around 1,800 Australians on the organ waitlist and 14,000 more on dialysis for kidney failure who need Australia’s help.
Sadly, more than 50 Australians died last year while on the organ transplant waitlist.
Four in five Australians say that they support donation, but only 36 per cent are registered – 23 per cent in Victoria and 31 per cent in the Yarra Ranges.
Mr Breslin created artwork for Victoria’s DonateLife Week Launch event on Sunday 28 with the Transplants Band and continues to work as an an artist in Melbourne.
Today, he is living with terminal cancer and is currently writing a book that is memoir-based and will include his experiences with organ donation – the chapter is to be called ‘Transplantation of Love’.
“It’s a miracle that I am alive, but I suffer for it,” Mr Breslin said.
“I keep working, I’ve got a couple of assistants who are awesome – without them, I couldn’t keep working.”
“I get up because I’ve got some purpose and the purpose isn’t for me – it serves other people and that’s the forefront motivation for me.”
If an extra 3 million Australians register, around 90-100 more people would receive a life-saving organ transplant every year.
Mr Breslin said that both donations kept him alive for 11 years when he was originally given three months to live.
“I’ve done talks in schools about resilience and about fear and means a lot to me , to just be of service,” he said.
“I’m aware of the fact that I don’t know how long I’ve got and I keep taking the projects. I also have anxiety around if I can honour them.”
The theme of DonateLife Week 2024 is ‘be the reason someone else gets a second chance at life.’
Mr Breslin said that in life vulnerability is key.
“If you don’t allow yourself to be vulnerable in front of somebody else, they won’t allow themselves to be vulnerable in front of you and then you cannot connect to them fully,” he said.
It only takes 1 minute to register as an organ and tissue donor at donatelife.gov.au or with three taps on the Express Plus Medicare app.
Don’t forget to tell your family you want to be a donor – someone’s life may depend on it.
