JEFF Wilson wants the Goulburn community to open hearts, minds and mouths during Donate Life Week.
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On Thursday, the Grand Pacific Health counsellor will be talking about organ donation in Goulburn Plaza.
Mr Wilson will be joined by colleagues, and Canberra Hospital organ donor nurse coordinator Erin Wells.
It was Ms Wells who stood by Jeff and wife Jenny as they sat with son Jamie through his end-of-life care.
Jamie was a much-loved local, Divalls employee and hockey enthusiast who died in March after a Hume Highway crash.
By chance, months earlier, he'd told his mother Jenny of his wish to be an organ donor should such a situation ever arise.
Donating Jamie's organs to four recipients - all of whom continue to thrive - "wasn't a remedy for our grief," Mr Wilson said.
"But it just reassured us that his life wasn't in vain; because of the type of person he was, he was still contributing to others.
"I still struggle even with 'reassurance', but is there a word to describe it? I don't know. It has been . . . helpful to us.
"If we didn't have that knowledge of what he wanted, we would have felt doubt and guilt as to whether we'd made the right decision."
The care, consideration and professionalism of organ donor nurse coordinator Erin Wells was also helpful, Mr Wilson said.
"She was absolutely brilliant," he said. "She's going to be there with us on Thursday at the mall (at a stall near Kmart)."
At the stall, "we hope to achieve awareness of organ donation, and of having conversations with people about their wishes.
"It's not about whether you do or you don't (want to donate organs); it's about knowing whether you do or you don't.
"You never ever expect that your children are going to die at the age of 26, or 20, or 16.
"It's about having that conversation so if anything does happen, you've got a bit of an idea."
The Donate Life program has kept the Wilsons informed about the four recipients' progress, "and all of the people who received his donation have progressed extremely well.
"Their recovery has been absolutely fantastic, for all of them, and that's been really nice news to hear," Mr Wilson said.
Jamie's heart valves, considered as tissue not organs, have been frozen in storage "for an appropriate recipient, and when they are used, they will let us know," Mr Wilson said.
He appreciates not every shopper will want to start a conversation about organ donation in the mall - but that's okay.
"We're going to have a lot of information there for people to grab and go away and read and have a bit of a think about.
"Really, it's just good to have a local face there to bring it home that it can happen to anybody."
The Donate Life stall will be in Goulburn Plaza from 10am to 4pm on Thursday, August 4, near Kmart.
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