Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can confirm to the member for Hume that the Picton Road upgrade, from last year's budget, will be honoured in full. But at the moment I would like to take a moment today to celebrate and commemorate the life of Jessica Sparks and share with you all of the incredible contributions that she made. Jess had cystic fibrosis, but there was never a moment where she allowed herself to be defined by that. At only 17 Jess was diagnosed with end stage lung disease and was lucky enough to receive a double lung transplant.

I first met Jess following a call from her grandmother—

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I first met Jess following a phone call from her grandmother Shirley Sparks with regard to some Telstra issues the family was having at the time. Obviously having a working phone is an absolute necessity when you're awaiting a call for a lung transplant. Luckily, that was an issue that Sharon Bird and I were able to help with quite quickly, and Jess got her phone call to say her transplant could proceed.

With her new lungs came a new lease on life. Three minutes is too short a time to list Jess's many achievements, but I will list some of them now—it's quite a list! She competed in the Australian and World Transplant Games. She set up her own non-profit organisation, Sparking Life, to raise awareness of organ donation and increase organ donation registrations and launched a new system for transplanting organs in New South Wales. In 2013 she was named the Wollongong Young Citizen of the Year and the Illawarra businesswoman of the future. In 2014 she received both a Churchill Fellowship to investigate education barriers to organ donation and an Australian Press Council award for journalism to work on a special UN study on protecting news sources in the digital age. In 2016 she was named the Chancellor Robert Hope medallist, which is the University Of Wollongong's most prestigious award for academic excellence and leadership.

Later that year, Jessica's lungs began to fail again. In an interview with the Illawarra Mercury at the time, she said, 'My lungs won't make it to another anniversary, so I want to especially thank my donor family and all donors and donor families for saying yes to organ donation and giving me the great opportunity that has been an extra seven years of life.'

She underwent her second double-lung transplant, a surgery which very few people have, and, despite all of the challenges, the achievements Jess made over her 30 years were more than most people could hope for in 90. But there is no doubt that her greatest achievement was the impact that she had on the lives of every person she met and the happiness and strength that she gave to those closest to her.

It would be remiss of me to talk about Jess without picking up the torch and continuing her advocacy for organ donation. Registering to be an organ donor can be done online through DonateLife. It takes one minute and could save up to seven lives. Jess will always be dearly missed by family and friends, but for all of us who were lucky to know her her memory and legacy will live on.

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