Over the past 40 years, NSW Police highway patrol have transported 3,700 organs to patients in need. One such transportation saved the life of Tilly Harley, who was born with biliary atresia and who waited a year for a liver to become available when she was just five years old.
00:00I was born biliatresial which was a liver disease that made me very yellow, very sick, very scratchy and my liver just wasn't working and I just kept on getting more and more sick over time and it really wasn't good.
00:12When Tilly was younger and she was ill, she was very sick. She started off not too bad I guess and then it just kind of got worse and worse. One of her symptoms was this scratching where she was scratching 24-7. She could not get any relief. She just had cuts and scabs all over her from scratching. We couldn't relieve her so she was very sad.
00:36I remember as a five-year-old her saying to me or actually she probably would have been four saying to me I can't do this anymore mum and that was a really hard thing to hear for a four-year-old to say that they can't do this anymore and said just that feeling of helplessness and just no energy watching these other kids.
00:55I mean we've had other kids come through and go you know running around at four years old and she didn't have the same energy whatsoever and as I said was very sad.
01:04When we found out that Tilly needed a new liver it was a whirlwind. We were mixed emotions. We were so excited to think wow we were actually going to get this little girl back. We were going to get her healthy and at the same time we knew what had to happen to get that little girl back and that was very we were really sad about that as well and we were so scared. We were just really scared. We had no idea. I mean it was being taken out of our hands but we were just as I said at the same time we were so excited to be able to get this little girl back.
01:34Waiting 12 months for the transplant was a long time. To be honest it felt much longer than 12 months. I know in the end we were one of the lucky ones but 12 months probably felt like about 12 years.
01:48Just every day knowing that she was getting sicker and sicker and just having to wait for that phone call. We had the phone everywhere we went and the minute it rang we'd jump we'd run and it was just it was that constant wait was a long time.
02:03I don't think I'll ever forget the time we got the phone call to tell us that it was time. My husband was actually asleep on the lounge at the time. I think I was just about to be ready to go to bed and the phone rang and it was actually probably the first time that I didn't think that it could have been it because it was just out of nowhere.
02:23And I just remember getting the phone call getting it and I just remember freezing and I remember looking at my husband and I shook him and woke him up and said we've got to go.
02:31It's time. It's time. And we both sort of just were in shock. We were in shock. We were scared. We were like what do we do?
02:37And then it was just autopilot. It was like we know what we've got to do. We've got to get there. We're going to do this and we're going to be entering something that's very scary but we're going to get something amazing and we're going to have yeah our little girl best feeling.
02:51At the time of her transplant we had no idea that it was it was transported through highway patrol. No. So we didn't know at the time that that's how it had come through.
03:02So this medical transport service that the highway patrol police use is a phenomenal thing that they've got now. I just think the fact that you have got someone's life in your hands pretty much.
03:16You've got something that is going to make or break someone's life. To be able to have that opportunity to be able to get there which could be one minute could mean everything.
03:26And the chance that they've got to be able to get through and get to the person that needs it is I mean you just can't that you can't even put a price on something like that.
03:35It's as I said you're saving someone's life. There's someone's life in that van in that car and it's going to get there and where it needs to be.
03:42Oh just a huge thank you. Like this has completely changed my life. Like this yeah it's made me so much better.
03:48It's the reason why my mum and dad have a little daughter and why my siblings have a little sister.
