Sisters Cassie Absolom and Rebecca Free are encouraging families to discuss organ and tissue donation. Picture: LORETTA JOHNSTON
WHEN Cassie Absolom and Rebecca Free's mother died suddenly in 2010, the sisters and their father were asked to consent to her tissue and organs being donated.
"We just had no idea," Ms Free said.
"Dad, Cassie and I had a talk about what we thought Mum would like, and we decided as a family that Mum was the sort of person that would want to help people ... all through her life she was very giving."
The sisters are taking part in Donate Life's Game Set Match for Life, a 24-hour community tennis match being held alongside the Moorilla Hobart International until 9am today.
The aim of the match is to encourage a community conversation about organ and tissue donation.
Donate Life spokesman Davin Hibberd said about 40 per cent of families said no to organ donation, often because they didn't know if their loved one wanted to be an organ donor.
Ms Absolom and Ms Free said it was difficult to make such a decision, and urged other families to have the conversation before they needed to decide.
"It's nearly three years ago and it's still very raw, but it's still something that Rebecca and I and Dad and the whole family just want to keep promoting," Ms Absolom said.
The tennis match was organised by Royal Hobart Hospital intensive care nurse Madeleine Shirley who looks after patients who go on to become organ and tissue donors.
More information is available from www.donatelife.gov.au.
