Airdate: The Last Race

On Sunday night ABC1 will showcase an unusual offering: a 30 minute short film in primetime.

The Last Race features Mark Lee, Holly Fraser, Daniel Garrett, Geraldine Hakewill, Tony Poli and Masa Yamaguchi. Airing as part of DonateLife Week, the film personalises the issues of Organ Donation with a story involving two families.

Produced by Anita Belgiorno-Nettis and Tristram Miall and Directed by Jeremy Cumpston this is an impressive and frequently moving viewing alternative.

Coinciding with DonateLife Week, a national week of raising awareness and promotion of organ and tissue donation, this dramatic film tracks a family’s heart-wrenching dilemma when their beloved son is declared brain dead after a cycling accident.

At the hospital, they wrestle with the decision to donate his organs, having never asked him his wishes and never having had the conversation among themselves.

Meanwhile, in intensive care, a father is watching his teenage daughter with cystic fibrosis struggle to breathe and deteriorate to critical condition. She needs a new set of lungs to survive. Elsewhere in the hospital, a 45-year-old woman also is on the recipient list, where she has waited for two years.

The cyclist’s organs become available, but the doctor must decide whose need is greatest.

Then the race is on.

Fewer than one in five Australians has had memorable discussions with their loved ones about their donation wishes.

6:30pm Sunday ABC1.