Wanniassa retired public servant Geoff Mason never imagined when he signed up to be an organ donor, the person he would end up helping would be his own daughter.
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His and wife Janette's middle child, Susannah, was a healthy, sports-loving teenager who rarely got sick but who ended up having to receive one of her father's kidneys when she developed an auto-immune disease.
The condition - pauci-immune glomerulonephritis - attacked her kidneys and meant she could barely walk and constantly felt tired and nauseous.
The then undiagnosed condition caused her kidneys to almost fail, putting her on an emergency airlift to The Children's Hospital at Westmead for treatment in April, 2012.
What followed were extended stays at Westmead for treatment, sometimes trips to Sydney up to three times a week for haemodialysis, and later peritoneal dialysis, which could be done at home every day, overnight.
The transplant took place in August, 2013, one day before Susannah's 16th birthday. Geoff had his left kidney removed in the morning at Westmead Hospital and it was carried in an esky next door to the Children's Hospital at Westmead for Susannah's operation that afternoon.
"For me, it was, 'Of course, Where do I sign? How quickly can we get this done?'," Geoff said of the decision to donate his kidney.
"Janette and I had already registered as donors never thinking it would actually be someone close to us that we would help."
Susannah said the improvement to her health after the transplant was almost immediate and definitely dramatic.
"That first week, out of ICU, it was amazing. I just felt alive again," she said.
"Just little things like my hair felt soft and my skin felt nice. I had energy, I could do stuff.
"When I was sick, it was so hard to do anything social but [after the transplant] I was looking to see people. It was nice to feel normal again."
Now 19, Susannah got to attend her year 10 formal at Wanniassa High, finished year 12 at Lake Tuggeranong College, travelled to Europe and is preparing to study nursing at the University of Canberra while working at the chemist at Erindale.
"I think definitely being in a hospital sparked the interest to be a nurse," she said.
The unfairness of it all is that the auto-immune disease returned late last year and could threaten the transplanted kidney. Susannah sheds tears as she contemplates another battle back to health.
But both she and her father are in no doubt her organ transplant improved her quality of life for three years and feel forever indebted to the staff at the Canberra and Westmead hospitals.
"I personally think it [organ donation] should be compulsory and you opt out of it rather than sign up for it," Susannah said.
Geoff said the organ transplant had been their "light at the end of the tunnel".
"To see her smile and not have to suffer, that's what you're after. And it is hard seeing her now and re-living what she went through in 2012," Geoff said.
"We're hopeful the kidney survives."
Canberrans will come together to raise awareness of the importance of organ and tissue donation at Gift of Life's Donate Like Walk on Wednesday, March 1.
Gift of Life president David O'Leary said more than 5000 people were expected to be turn out for the event.
"We're encouraging everyone to sign up to the Australian Organ Donor Register and to talk about their decision with their family," Mr O'Leary said.
"In 2016, the ACT had 20 organ donors who generously saved the lives of 59 people through transplants, a 54 per cent increase in the number of deceased organ donors and a significant increase in the number of lives saved after transplant compared to the previous year."
The walk, along Lake Burley Griffin, starts from a new location this year, on the Patrick White Lawns outside the National Library of Australia, at 6.45am for a 7am start. To register for the walk, go to www.giftoflife.asn.au
