THE day Ira Effrett was told she did not have long to live was the day she was given the most beautiful gift – a donor liver to allow her to keep on living.Mrs Effrett, 60, attended a check-up at The Austin hospital in Melbourne in September when doctors told her she did not have long to live. Hours later, a voice down the telephone line asked her to travel back to the hospital from her Wendouree home immediately.A donor liver was waiting to replace her liver that was badly damaged by primary biliary cirrhosis, a disease in which bile ducts die. After a nine-hour operation, Mrs Effrett was on the road to recovery.“I was put into intensive care and woke up in there after a couple of days. When I saw my husband’s face I thought I had survived and then I saw my son’s face and I knew I had survived,” Mrs Effrett said.Mrs Effrett, who was on the donor waiting list since the end of 2009, spent eight weeks in hospital. Four months on, she is doing great.“It feels like I have a brand new life. I was so sick before but you still keep going and enjoy what you had,” she said. “The whole donor program is a wonderful thing and I am going to try and encourage people to do it.”Mrs Effrett said her whole experience was an emotional rollercoaster. When she was told she would die, she wrote letters to her children and relatives. After the transplant, she wrote a letter to the anonymous donor’s family.“It took me a month to send my letter to the donor’s family because it was such an emotional thing. You have to choose things so carefully,” she said.Mrs Effrett said there were so many people requiring organs, including children, babies and many people in different stages of their lives.“I want to thank people who are donors and encourage people to consider organ donation because it means such a lot to recipients,” she said.In a bid to increase organ and tissue donations, the first DonateLife Week will be held from tomorrow until Sunday, February 27. In Ballarat, the launch will be held at 10.30am this Monday at Stems Flower Market in Mair Street. DonateLife Week aims to raise awareness of the need for organ and tissue donation, encourage Australians to discuss donation and to know each other’s donation wishes.