A few years ago one of my dearest friend's in the world, suffered the agony of the news that her baby required a liver transplant. Over weeks and months we watched her sweet baby deteriorate. His tiny little body was emaciated because he couldn't process nutrients normally. He wore a naso-gastric tube. He suffered nasty reactions to his medications and his skin often peeled away as I held him. At social gatherings my friend would often lock herself in the bathroom to avoid questions from well meaning friends and strangers asking about how her son was doing.
There were painful phone-calls too. My friend wept as she talked about how she had planned his funeral. Having lost a child previously she wondered how she could go through the agony again. As her friend, there was very little I could say or do. Except listen. I did a great deal of listening.
Her son was very lucky. After a live liver transplant which was donated by his father her son is now a joy filled, mischievous little boy. Apart from an enormous scar across his abdomen which we only see at the swimming pool you'd never know all his family endured.
Recently there has been a media firestorm, I am afraid there is no other word for it about a young woman called Clare Murray. The facts are these. Clare Murray needs a liver transplant. It would be her second one. She has two young children. And Clare is a recovering heroin addict. It is alleged her drug use after her first transplant caused her liver to fail, requiring her to need a second transplant.
She was refused a place on the waiting list because of the return to drug use. The Health Minister said it would be "patently unfair" to put a former drug addict back on a waiting list for a second liver transplant. There are seven people on the current waiting list.
Now the Government has given her family an interest free loan to fly to Singapore. Predictably articles saying: "CLAIRE Murray, whose drug addiction ruined her liver transplant, has arrived in Singapore hoping for a "live liver'' transplant operation that could save her life.
The young mother-of-two, whose drug addiction ruined her liver transplant, arrived in Singapore yesterday hoping for a "live liver'' transplant operation that could save her life.
The trip comes thanks to a $258,000 loan from the WA Government."
Please note the repetition of the same phrase twice in two short paragraphs.
Yes Clare Murray is a recovering addict. I think it has been made eloquently clear.
Here are my thoughts.
Firstly Australia needs to do a hell of a lot more about ensuring there are enough organ donors to prevent this kind of shortfall occurring.
Secondly why wasn't this young woman offered an intensive rehabilitation programme after her transplant? Oh, because here in Perth there is tragically little in the way of facilities offered for our recovering drug addicts.
As I understand it, her parents will pay this loan back. No one will foot the bill for this. They will. They also do this with the knowledge but it may well not work. Instead they may well also be paying for their daughter's funeral. They love their daughter.
Finally, her family have been to hell with this. They've endured media intrusion. Their attempt to portray their daughter's plight and appeal for aid was appallingly handled by our local media.
They've seen their beloved daughter crucified in the press about her addiction, an addiction so deadly that I can't even pretend to understand its grip on her. But as I understand addiction is a disease. It needs treatment. Clare Murray didn't get that treatment.
And now she is in Singapore hoping she can get this transplant.
And as someone who watched parents suffer over the pain and suffering endured by their own child I want her and her family to know, I wish them all the very best.
It's the only thing I can do.