A donors journey with MD – Giving the gift of a donation

My journey began over 40 years ago when through a mutual friend I met my first husband, Martin.

Martin was the eldest of 4 siblings who grew up in a loving immigrant family. From an early age his mother detected there was something wrong and at the time he was diagnosed as having Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and that he would probably be dead by his early 20’s.

However Martin defied their predictions and flawed the specialists to make it to his 70th birthday. (It was only when he was in his 60’s that a definitive diagnosis’s (Ullrich Congenital MD ) was made thanks to the testing carried out on our eldest son.

In the nearly 38 years of our marriage, Martin continued to love to explore, learn and share his experiences with family and friends. He always had a “can do attitude” and sort ways to serve and engage with others. He and I both had/have a strong faith in the God of the Bible that sustained us through both the good and difficult times and as sad as it is that Martin is no longer here I am very thankful for the time we spent together.

A few years later I had the privilege of meeting a caring widower, Norm, whom Martin and I had both known and last November we got married. One of the highlights of our service was having Martin and my eldest son give the address. He made the comment “While I do relish the opportunity to be able to give my Mum some advice, what can I possibly say?”
when he realised that collectively we had “almost 90 years of married experience.”

With all that “experience” we had also acquired all we needed so decided to give those who wanted to give gifts an opportunity to make a donation to Muscular Dystrophy NSW. Therefore, it was a pleasure to recently be able to pass on their gifts to this worthwhile organisation.