The walk promotes organ donation and the importance of being on the national organ and tissue register. Only one in four Canberrans are on the register, compared to one in three nationally. Registrations for the walk are now open at www.giftoflife.asn.au.

On Wednesday, there will be the choice to work a 45-to-60-minute bridge-to-bridge route around Lake Burley Griffin or a shorter 15 to 20 minute walk around the pond in Commonwealth Park.

Early birds will receive a free t-shirt, hat or gift bag ( first in, first served). Participants will finish off the morning with a free barbecue breakfast served by Lions Club Canberra Belconnen.

It comes as DonateLife ACT is working towards the goal of having surgeons in Canberra able to retrieve organs rather than the current case where surgical teams have to fly in from Sydney to perform the retrievals.

DonateLife ACT general manager Nadia Burkolter said the lead time necessary for a family to agree to an organ donation to ensure the surgical team was booked in could put extra pressure on grieving loved ones. Others, however, saw is as extra time to come to terms with saying goodbye.

Gift of Life president and liver recipient David O'Leary said the decision was always easier when people talked about the issue ahead of time.

"We know that 93 per cent of families agreed to donation when their family member was on the donor register. No one wants to be put in that position to have to make the decision, but it is made easier when you know your loved one's wishes," he said.

"I am sure there are many more Canberrans who would be a donor but they just haven't gotten around to registering or just don't know how to register."

More details are at https://donatelife.gov.au/register-donor-today

In the meantime, Canberra-based specialists able to perform the organ retrievals were definitely on the agenda.

"It's not in the near future but we're certainly looking at the option for abdominal organs such as the kidney, liver and pancreas," Ms Burkolter said.

Surgical teams flew in from St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney to Canberra to retrieve the hearts and lung of donors because that's where all the transplants were done.

Westmead and the Royal Prince Alfred hospitals in Sydney took it in turns to be on call in on a weekly basis to send their teams to Canberra, when necessary to retrieve kidneys, livers and pancreases.

Specialists nurses in Canberra were able to take eye tissue for corneal transplants, bones (often transplanted when someone had cancer or was in a serious accident), tendons and skin (especially for burn grafts).

Ms Burkolter said the surgeons who retrieved the organs from the donor where often the same who stitched it into the recipient.

Those doctors of the future who might be doing the retrievals in Canberra could one day come from the ANU cohort. These second year students have come from places from Pakistan to Byron Bay to the Riverina to study in Canberra.

"We're all very honoured and privileged to be here," student Chloe Kummer said.

Student Jimmy Grant said they weren't taught about organ donation as part of their curriculum but they were exposed to information, including from Gift of Life, which had a stall at the ANU Students' Association Orientation Week market day on Wednesday.

Another student Adi Sashtry said they were advocates of organ donation, knowing how much it changed or saved someone's life.

"When a chapter ends, it's nice to pass on to someone else so their story continues. It turns that full stop into a comma," he said.