Brave Coen Ashton helps lift organ donor rate
17 January 2012
FOR a young man with a supposedly debilitating disease, Coen Ashton has already achieved more than most people.
The determined 14-year-old, who last year won a Pride of Australia medal for his trailblazing jet-ski ride down the Murray River to raise awareness about organ donation, has helped boost Australia’s participation rates to record levels.
Courageous Queensland teen Coen Ashton has seen the fruits of his labour bloom as he awaits a new set of lungs in Melbourne.
After finishing an awareness-raising 2000km jet-ski ride down the Murray River last year, the 14-year-old cystic fibrosis sufferer and organ donation campaigner yesterday said he had been buoyed by new figures showing Australia recorded its highest number of donors in 2011.
The statistics from the Australia and New Zealand Organ Donation Registry (ANZOD) and Organ and Tissue Authority show 337 Australians who died in 2011 donated their organs, up from 309 in 2010.
Of those, 67 came from Queensland, compared to 49 in 2010.
Australia-wide, 1001 people benefited from the donated organs.
The inspiring increase came after Coen’s voyage last year resulted in more than 1000 people signing up to become organ donors and earned the teen a Pride of Australia Child of Courage medal and People’s Choice award.
Having relocated from Maryborough to Melbourne with his family as he awaits a suitable set of replacement lungs, Coen said he was pleased at the increase but would like to see more people sign up.
“It might have been mainly my help, that’s what I reckon,” he said.
“It’s a good feeling that it’s higher but it’s not massive yet, so we still need to push it up more and get people to have a good think about it and not just say, ‘I’ll do it later’.”
The Ashton family of four are living on their catamaran at the Melbourne’s Docklands while they deal with the financial burdens of uprooting their life and finding a place to live.
With her son still requiring regular hospital treatment during “good weeks and bad weeks”, Dawn Ashton said the hardship would all be worth it once a donor was found.
“He jumps in to hospital for two weeks, which we call a ‘tune up’, and then he’s out for two weeks … depending on how well he is,” she said.
“As of a couple of days ago he was the only person for his size and blood group looking for a set of lungs, so we know that as soon as a donor becomes available that they will go to Coen.
“It is serious and this is our only chance of Coen being able to extend his life. If we don’t get a set of lungs then we don’t get that chance.”