OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
INSPIRING STORIES FROM ACROSS THE RAY WHITE NETWORK
EVERYTHING TO LIVE FOR
BY ALEX TILBURY
KATE HANSEN LOVES COMING TO WORK . THE 36 YEAR OLD PROPERTY MANAGER AT RAY WHITE LARA DOESN ’ T TAKE ANY DAY FOR GRANTED .
Because over two years ago , Kate died .
For a whole 15 minutes , Kate , who was desperately ill and in need of a kidney and pancreas transplant , died but was brought back to life by paramedics using CPR for 90 minutes . It was her 32nd birthday .
Kate , who has had Type 1 diabetes since she was four , had been on the organ transplant list for seven and a half years and she was having dialysis three times a week .
Kate knew the odds were stacked against her . On Melbourne Cup Day in 2013 she crashed her car after a seizure brought on by high blood pressure and damaged both her kidney and pancreas to such a serious extent that she required a double transplant . She woke up 12 days later and spent the next two years in recovery .
Kate recalls how challenging it was waiting for the phone call to inform her whether they ’ d found an organ donor for her . Fortunately for Kate , she finally got the call in 2019 that a family had agreed to donate their loved one ’ s organs .
“ I was literally given the gift of life , through a new kidney and pancreas ,” she said .
Her story has been told on SBS TV , Apple TV and was a part of a national documentary called Dying to Live . The night the show aired was the same day as her double organ transplant operation .
“ The statistics for organ donation are very grim . Currently there are 1806 people of which there are between 65 to 80 children on the national waiting list to receive a transplant today . Currently one in five people that are on the waiting list will die waiting ,” Kate said .
Kate is an ambassador for the Zaidee ’ s Rainbow Foundation , who for the past 17 years have been campaigning to increase the national donation rate .
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