The greatest gift: How organ donation gave Joyce her life back

After 32 years as part of the Murdoch family, Joyce never imagined she would find herself waiting for the phone call that could save her life.

Diagnosed with the rare autoimmune disease fibrillary glomerulonephritis (FGN) at the end of 2024, Joyce’s health deteriorated rapidly despite intensive treatment. By early 2025, she was told her only treatment option would eventually be a kidney transplant.

“I was never sick,” Joyce said. “I had over 1,000 hours of sick leave.”

As her kidney function declined, Joyce began dialysis in January 2026 while waiting on the national transplant list.

“You don’t know when you may get a kidney," she said. “You’re on the list and there is no time frame.”

Dialysis four times a day eventually made it impossible for Joyce to continue working, leading to one of the hardest decisions of her life.

“With sadness, as Murdoch has always been my family, I had to make the decision to resign after 32 years - probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made.”

Then everything changed.

On 28 May, Joyce received the phone call she had been waiting for.

“They basically said they had a kidney available and to come on in. It was just crazy. In your brain it was like, ‘What? Now?’”

Following further testing, Joyce was taken to theatre.

“At 12 o’clock a theatre trolley turned up and they said, ‘Okay, all good, let's go!’ By 7pm I was back on the ward with a kidney... What just happened.”

As life changing as receiving a transplant was, Joyce said one moment brought home the incredible generosity of the family who made it possible.

“My donor lived in Adelaide and was a 95% match – how amazing is that!

“They scanned my donor kidney, and you could hear my blood pumping into it. It suddenly hits you that four days earlier that would have been pumping someone else’s blood.

“That’s when you realise how the donor family would be feeling as they had lost a loved one. There are no words to describe the decision they had to make to basically save someone else. I will be forever grateful.”

Eight weeks after her transplant, Joyce says the difference has been life changing.

“Receiving a kidney has given me a normal life. It got me off dialysis.”

“It means I can improve my strength again, and I could also work again, which I wasn’t able to do, or just do normal things that we all take for granted.”

Throughout her journey, Joyce says she was supported by two families - her family at home and her Murdoch family.

“I have been blessed to have two families that have supported me.”

“My Murdoch family, all the caregivers, have supported me, checked in and been available when I’ve needed that hug.”

During DonateLife Week, Joyce hopes her experience encourages others to have the conversation about organ and tissue donation with their loved ones.

“I think people worry about donation. It’s a difficult decision because you’ve just lost your loved one. But by donating, you can save or improve someone else’s life.”

“I know that, in a while, I would like to contact the family through DonateLife and let them know how it has given me my life back.”

For Joyce, there are simply no words big enough to express her gratitude.

“Any recipient of a donated organ will never have the words to thank the donor and their family. It’s the greatest gift that one can receive.”

This DonateLife Week, caregivers are encouraged to consider registering as organ and tissue donors and, importantly, have a conversation with their family about their wishes. While registration is important, families are always involved in the donation process and knowing their loved one’s wishes can make an incredibly difficult decision a little easier.