Jersey Day 2024

Get set to wear your favourite team jersey on Jersey Day, Friday 30th August.

While it is a day to be proud of your team it is also a reminder to register to be an organ donor and to have a conversion about organ donation with your family.

When the Hills-based Gremmo family established Jersey Day nine years ago they had no idea how much it would expand over the years. Jersey Day is now a fixture on calendars all over Australia and has been spreading overseas.

Jersey Day was established as a legacy of 13-year-old Nathan Gremmo who died after a road accident in Glenhaven in 2015.

He was rushed to hospital and placed on life support. When his parents, Michael and Kylie, were asked about organ donation, they and Nathan’s younger sisters Annaliese and Ashley knew that’s exactly what Nathan would have wanted. The Oakhill college student had watched a documentary on organ and tissue donation just weeks before the accident and had spoken to his father about organ donation and how donors saved lives.

His sister Annaliese, who is about to graduate as a nurse, says: “Six lives were saved as a result of Nathan’s generous gift. We needed something good to come out of this horrible tragedy. “

She has been urging people to act on the message of Jersey Day.

“It’s as easy as discovering the facts about organ donation, deciding about becoming a donor, registering your decision online and most importantly discussing your decision with your family.”

Ashley, who is studying to be a vet nurse said:” The Jersey Day campaign is not about raising money but raising awareness about organ donation and the need to talk to family members about your wishes.”

The sisters say Jersey Day is a positive celebration of Nathan’s legacy of Organ Donation. “He is still saving lives.”

According to figures from Services Australia, as at 30th June 2024: NSW has the biggest number of registered donors with 42.41% of eligible people registering their intent to be an organ donor, the figure is 18.3% in South Australia, 14.59% in Queensland and less than 11 % in Victoria.

Michael said the increase in people registering as an organ donor is a huge positive as is the increase of the number of families following their loved ones wishes.

“The figure used to be that about 50% of families would follow an organ donor’s wish, now it’s 80%,” he told the Hills to Hawkesbury Community News.

Annaliese says: “Our family has endured the cruelest of possible circumstances. I can only think that if our circumstances were reversed and Nathan was desperate for an Organ Donation we would move heaven and Earth to save my brother; However, the reality is that we would be waiting for a generous organ donor family to save Nathan’s life.”

Thousands of schools and businesses across Australia are now part of Jersey Day with Nathan’s old school Oakhill College one of the first to get onboard.

Marian College at Kenthurst has also been a big Jersey Day supporter. When 13-year-old student Blake Tickell died after a freak waterski accident in 2017 his family agreed to organ donation, saving several lives. Peter Beaumont organised Jersey Day with his company’s staff at Norwest in 2015 and registered his wishes to be a donor online with DonateLife.gov..au The following year he was killed in a car accident in Carlingford. His family supported his wishes and his organs gave five people the chance to live.

Kylie says while they haven’t spoken to the recipients of Nathan’s organs they have spoken to other organ recipients who have been given the gift of life and they have heard the positive impact it has had on their family and friends.

She said she loved seeing people wearing their jersey on Jersey Day and seeing the photos posted on social media. “Nothing else makes us prouder of Nathan’s Legacy of saving lives through organ donation than to see people’s photos and videos on social media.

Please wear your jersey on Friday 30th August and have that important conversation with your family and friends.”

Tag your Jersey Day photos @jerseydayau #jerseydayau #donatelife To find out more about Jersey Day visit www.jerseyday.com.au to register your wishes as an organ donor visit DonateLife.gov.au and have a conversation with your family. 8 out of 10 families gave consent to donation when their family member was a registered donor. Around 1,800 Australians are waiting on a life-saving Organ or Tissue Donation and around 14,000 additional people on dialysis. Since the National program began in 2009 18,144 people have received transplants.