Something tinkling in the wind

Kerry Hunt and Kelly Page have undergone a liver transplant and are now making people aware of the benefits of organ donation. Photo: John Borren.

Little bells, children's bells, gently tinkling in the breeze. And their ringing is a reminder about the giving of the greatest gift. Life itself.

'To the finder of this bell,” says the message attached to the bell. 'This bell has been placed in the memory of the greatest hero will never know, my liver donor. May the ringing of this bell inspire you to save the lives of eight others through your donation.”

They have been hung randomly around Tauranga and Mount Maunganui with green ribbon symbolising liver health awareness. And they have been hung by a man who came within cooee of dying. 'I had kind of packed my bags, packed up my life. The body acts mysteriously because I believe it prepares you for death, it tells you everything is okay,” says Kerry Hunt.

Before Kerry's life-saving and life changing liver transplant two years ago, his doctor told him he probably had just two or three weeks to live. 'That was about it, I was gone.”

Only about 50 liver transplants are performed each year. 'I have had friends on the same journey who just didn't make it, didn't make it because a donor didn't come up in time.” and therein lies the message of the little bells.

'Because the ‘donor' indicator on your driver's licence means jack s**t. It's a nonsense. Any one of your family can say ‘no' to organ harvesting and it doesn't happen. So talk to your family, tell them that is your wish, that you want to donate your organs. Because harvesting organs from one person can save up to eight lives.”

Kerry's was one of those lives saved. 'Now I have the most amazing insights into life, how beautiful it is. And you can only really understand that after being in the position of your life closing down.”

Kerry's life just about closed down in 2016 after what he describes as less-than-wise life choices. 'Alcohol,” he admits. 'I drank more than most people and a lot more than I thought I was.” He was admitted to the Accident and Emergency department with a sore leg and three weeks later emerged from an induced coma. 'I had liver failure, it was pretty much damaged beyond repair.” It hadn't healed itself 'in any shape or form” after a year and so he was placed on the transplant list.

'The sickest go first, they are the priority. The closer you are to death, the sooner you get a transplant.” As Kerry describes it, he spent a year dying before getting the call from Auckland Hospital. The deceased donor had suffered a brain injury or haemorrhage and was pronounced brain dead.

'The liver matched my blood type and size and so after a ten-hour operation I had a new liver. I came out the other side pretty good – the perfect transplant.” And since, he has lived his life well and healthily. 'In honour of my donor – I am taking his liver on a new journey.”

And the 56-year-old former interior designer who was gifted a new chance at life is paying back with the bells, raising awareness, inspiring people to be donors, and to have those difficult conversations with families. He's also paying back as a consultant with the liver transplant unit in Auckland. 'Formulating some better procedures, and bits and pieces on getting on the list.”

Kerry Hunt bandies about the word beautiful – the world is beautiful, life is beautiful and his daughter is even more beautiful. 'I see everything and everyone differently now, so my little bells are bells of awareness really.”

It puts things in perspective – like driving and road rage. It doesn't bother Kerry Hunt any more. 'Because they are such small things. They don't matter.”

Things that do matter to Kerry Hunt are the gift of seeing his daughter graduating from university and her falling in love. 'Amazing things,” he says, with amazingly new appreciation that only comes after a brush with mortality. And with the tinkling of little bells. Listen for them.

For more information go to Organ Donation New Zealand's website: www.donor.co.nz

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