As part of a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of organ donation, a local nurse has set out to get Griffith residents talking about the "incredible benefits" of signing up to become a donor.

Fiona McKern, a clinical nurse specialist in the ICU at Griffith Base Hospital and the regional network champion for organ and tissue donation, spent the end of July passionately advocating for DonateLife Week across the community.

She said a big focus over the week was to create a bigger understanding of the importance and impact that just one donation can make.

"We really set out to raise awareness and to generate discussions and conversations between our loved ones and I really think we achieved that," Mrs McKern said.

"With organs and tissues there is such a broad range of things they can assist with, whether they're skin grafts or even helping restore eyesight.

"One person donating can make such a huge difference in people's lives and you're saving multiple lives with each donation."

READ MORE

As well as the hospital, DonateLife Week displays were also set up at Griffith City Library and at Amanti Di Caffe, and Mrs McKern said she was proud to see how well the community embraced the week.

"I know for example that Amanti has helped generate some discussions between people who are quite young which probably wouldn't have happened if not for Donate Life Week," she said.

Mrs McKern has been passionate about organ donation since she first began working in health and saw the impact that donating could have.

"Whenever you lose a patient it's always so tragic and the first time I had a patient who wasn't going to make it and who was donating I saw the profound positive impact it could have on other people and it was honestly really eye-opening," she said.

"The whole process is done in a very respectful manner and I would never even hesitate to donate myself or to encourage a family member to donate."

Registering to become an organ and tissue donor can be done in less than a minute at donatelife.gov.au/register.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: