I’m working on the FilmLife Project, a collaborative project in conjunction with Donate Life Week 2012 (19-26 February), that aims to inspire and encourage young people to have conversations that ask and find out their loved ones wishes around organ and tissue donation.

It’s actually a film festival for new and emerging filmmakers to make a five minute short film on the importance of knowing your loved ones wishes, and we’re getting fabulous responses from people who have never made a film before and want to, and young people who are waiting for an organ transplant and want to tell their story, to say it’s exciting to watch is an understatement.

I mean, these films will raise awareness about organ donation and that has the potential to save lives.

One of the things we’re doing is reaching out to bloggers and asking them to take part in the FilmLife Project Blogger Challenge to help us raise even more awareness about the film festival and the issue at the heart of it all.

Thought I’d better get my answers in quick smart, especially if I’m asking my bloggy friends to do the same!

FilmLife asks:

1. What’s your take on or experience with organ donation, and why did you choose to take part in the FilmLife Blogger Challenge?

I believe that organ donation is an easy gift to give while you are still alive, much easier than changing your wishes if something unseemly happened to you. And if you are down the gurgler (so to speak) wouldn’t it be nice to help others to live?

2. If you were to donate your organs, which one would you love to donate, and why?

My favourite to donate would be my eyes because they’re big and they’re blue and I quite like them. However I remember that when I first got my licence to drive at 18, I opted to donate everything BUT my eyes, because I then wanted to keep them for myself (like that would do me any good!).

Note to self: must update my preferences on the organ donation register.

I would much rather give whatever I can, these days, so someone else could appreciate all the beauty in the world through my eyes — rather than I take them with me.

3. Who in your family would you need to talk to about organ donation, to be sure your loved ones knew your wishes?

Since I’ve been involved with FilmLife, I’ve had plenty of easy conversations with friends and family about my wishes (mostly with glass of bubbles held high, telling them to take ‘whatever they can’ with blithe asides about my liver needing some work).

But the main people are really my gorgeous author husband Chris Allen, my Captain Morgan (once he’s old enough) and my parentals. I remember mum driving one car around with the old bumper sticker ‘don’t take your organs to heaven, heaven knows we need them here’ so I know we are of like mind on that issue.

There’s also an option to create a 12 second FilmLife Project and post it to the FilmLife Facebook page. I’ve done that using my iPhone a couple of times. It’s pretty rudimentary, but it’s my life on film and you can watch it here and here!

There you go.

If you want to find out more about FilmLife Project, head to www.filmlife.com.au. For those near Sydney there’s a free filmmaking workshop on 21, 22 and 28 January (valued at $3,000 per person) to learn the skills and also talk to people whose lives have been impacted by organ donation, first hand.

There’s only about five spots left for the workshop so Get. In. Quick!

If you’re a blogger and you want to take part, just check out how to get involved here.

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January 6, 2012