For business owner Sam Gibson, Christmas is the busiest time of the year as he makes giant festive decorations out of corflutes that are shipped all over the world.
But in the season of giving and receiving, Mr Gibson pauses to reflect on the greatest gift he ever received — a new kidney.
Two years on from his successful transplant, the 53-year-old from Toogoom, near Hervey Bay in Queensland's Wide Bay, is urging others to register as an organ donor to give the gift of life.
"You didn't realise how sick you actually were until you looked in the mirror and realised it was a whole different person," Mr Gibson said.
Getting diagnosed
Mr Gibson's journey to a transplant began two decades ago when he was called in for a random drug and alcohol test while working at a Moranbah mine in central Queensland in 2002.
The results detected an issue with the protein in his urine and he was soon after diagnosed with IgA nephropathy, a disease leading to kidney failure.
After 15 years of monitoring the disease with regular blood tests, he fell sick on an overseas holiday in 2017.
"We came home, I was talking to my doctor and all of a sudden, I just zoned out," Mr Gibson said.
"[The doctor] said, 'What's going on?' and my wife said to her, 'He's doing it all the time now'.
"I just wasn't on this planet, couldn't string two words together, couldn't stand, couldn't sit, and within a week I was doing dialysis."
So began Mr Gibson's long run having his blood filtered three times a week.
"[Dialysis] physically drains you. It's like you've been up for 24 hours, you've got bad cramps, stinking headaches, you're just not well," he said.
After two years of dialysis and another year on the transplant waiting list, Mr Gibson said he received a life-changing phone call in 2020.
"Two o'clock in the morning I got a phone call again saying I got a kidney and I had to be at the Princess Alexander Hospital in Brisbane for a transplant … and that was the end of it," he said.
A rare success story
Mr Gibson said he was a 99-per-cent match with the donor organ, which resulted in a successful transplant.
"I suppose if you're that way inclined, the stars and the moon — everything has got to line up," he said.
"If something goes wrong, they throw it in the bin. I was one of the lucky ones."
According to Australia's Organ and Tissue Authority (OTA), only 2 per cent of all people who die in hospital each year can be considered for organ donation.
Donation specialist nurse coordinator at Hervey Bay Hospital Ian Rogers hoped the statistics prompted the public to realise the importance of registering as an organ donor.
"Within the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay area, somewhere between two to eight families allow donation to happen in our communities every year," Mr Rogers said.
"People think it happens regularly, but it doesn't. It is a very rare event.
"So, it means that for everyone that is on the Australian Organ Donor Register, it gives a small chance that their families can allow it to happen."
Creating Christmas cheer
After recovering from his transplant, Mr Gibson threw in his job as a boilermaker to pursue an unconventional career making Christmas props.
It was work Mr Gibson believed he could not have done without the gift of a donor kidney.
"I take all the phone calls, I do all the design work, machine work, I clean it all up, and the hardest part is the hours and hours of book work," he said.
"[The kidney] has opened up the doors again to the sky being the limit.
"Donating saves a life … I've got kids, I've got grandkids, I've still got parents, and this has given them back to me."
