UQ service to honour 74 donors

The gift of anatomy donors to The University of Queensland will be remembered at the University’s moving, annual multi-faith Thanksgiving Service on Wednesday, May 2.

The Thanksgiving Service will be held at the UQ Centre, Union Road St Lucia campus at 5.30pm.

The University welcomes relatives and friends of donors, and interested members of the community to attend.

The service provides an opportunity for staff and students to publicly express their appreciation for the extreme generosity of people who donate their bodies to the University for use in teaching and research.

The gift of donors is important for the training of professional groups including medical, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, science, speech pathology and audiology, dentistry, pharmacy and human movement studies students.

Guest speaker, Associate Professor Charles Naylor, who is Chief Forensic Pathologist at Queensland Health Scientific Services, will elaborate on this theme. Dr Naylor is also Inspector of the Schools of Anatomy in Queensland.

UQ has been holding the service since 1992, when it acknowledged all donors to the School of Biomedical Science's Bequest Program since 1927. The event was the first of its kind in Australia and New Zealand. Appreciated by relatives and the community, it is now an important UQ tradition.

UQ Thanksgiving Service organising committee chair is Leo Brown of the School of Biomedical Sciences.

He said this year the service would specifically honour 74 donors who died during 2005 and whose bodies had assisted students over the past two years to gain increased knowledge of human anatomy.

“The names of these donors are inscribed in a Book of Remembrance which is carried in procession,” he said.
“A central and very solemn part of the service is the lighting of knowledge candles and the ceremonial reading of donors’ names. It's a very moving occasion.”

Mr Brown said other tertiary institutions in Australia and New Zealand had adopted UQ’s model.

“I have received many positive comments from families and friends of donors. They express their gratitude that the University conducts this service in such a compassionate manner and that it provides a closure to the grieving process,” he said.

During the service, UQ Chaplain Father Ian Howells will be joined by ministers of Muslim, Christian and Buddhist faiths, together with staff and student representatives to conduct this event.

The 60-voice University Chorale will sing at the service. Hungarian-born lecturer in conducting and aural studies, Ms Reka Csernyik of UQ’s School of Music, will lead the Chorale. The choir will be accompanied by a brass quartet.

Ms Csernyik said the University Chorale included students from across the University campus and provided students with a choral vocal training program, as well as exposure to a variety of musical genres.

“The students are practising very hard for this very important event,” she said.

“They wish to do the very best for the families of donors.”

This year’s service will be filmed as part of a three state-location documentary with the central premise that the death of one person can assist up to 100 people via tissue and organ donations, and training of students.

For details of the Thanksgiving Service, visit http://www.uq.edu.au/sbms/index.html?page=28740.

People requiring more information can contact:
• Gabrielle Pascoe (Secretary)
Email: g.pascoe@uq.edu.au Phone: (07) 3365 1950
• Leo Brown (Chairman)
Email: leo.brown@uq.edu.au Phone: (07) 3365 2515

Media: Bequest Program Manager Leo Brown (07 3365 2515) or Jan King at UQ Communications (07 3365 1120.