City and country came together at Bondi on Saturday when 40 head of cattle were led out of the Herd of Hope truck on to the beach to promote awareness of the lack of services in rural areas regarding organ donors and those who receive transplants. The cattle were rounded up at the world famous beach by six stockmen and women who were either organ donors or receivers. Members of the Jugiong community were in attendance at the event to honour local lad Lui Polimeni who passed away in 2016.
Lui saved the lives of 6 recipients who have gone on to live normally. His mother Jenny said that the number 13 animal was sponsored by the community which was the same number number of Lui’s gurnsey. Jenny Sturrock from the Jugiong Motor Inn was behind the fundraising efforts and raised over $11,000. The truck carrying the animals to Sydney stopped off at Jugiong. Megan McLoughinsaid, “Lui’s story has been a driving force behind the cattle drive and it was fitting that they passed the grave site in his hometown.”
Herd of Hope Director and double transplant of a kidney and pancreas, Megan developed the event as a way of raising awareness of the lack of services available to rural families, with one in three organ and tissue recipients living rurally. She said that seven years she ago she was given three weeks to live, and a month after that she met her husband, and now has two beautiful kids. According to Ms McLoughlin, the idea took five years to come to fruition and was made possible with the support of her dad.
“All the cattle we have brought from Bondi have come all the way from Alice Springs and I think that’s a huge reflection of the process of organ donations,” she said. “Through all the rough, all the wrong turns and bumps along the way, the end result is something just as beautiful as Bondi. “Today there was no country or city — just unity for a great cause.”
