Ms Reed is going to donate part of her old hip to the NSW Tissue Bank’s bone bank.

The Wagga Rural Referral Hospital is one of 21 facilities in NSW that participate in the femoral head donation program, and has just been recognised for its support of the scheme.

As part of the program, femoral heads – the bones retrieved during hip replacement surgery –  are donated to the bone bank and used for other orthopaedic surgery, which can significantly reduce the healing time for patients.

“WWRRH has just achieved its first 100 donors which is a great milestone,” project leader Maree Howell said.

“In its first year of operation in 2015 there were 20 donors. This has now risen to over 50 donors per year which is a phenomenal effort,” she said.

“WWRRH has gone from participating at a regional level to being one of the best performing hospitals in NSW in terms of donor numbers.”

Ms Reed is only too happy to boost those donor numbers.

She actually works at the hospital, but admits she did not know about the donation program before talking to Ms Howell during pre-admissions interviews.

The hospital’s ambulatory care services nurse unit manager Rashid Samad is proud of the staff’s achieving 100 donations in such a short time.

“Everyone plays a role which allows patients in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District to give something back to their community,” Mr Samad said.

“Much of the thanks goes to the dedicated team of staff in the pre-admissions clinics, the nursing staff in operating theatres and to former donor specialist nurse Sarah Woolley.

“Sarah’s hard work and dedication has paid off and now the staff at WWRRH take up the mantle to continue the great work.”

Bone bank living donor co-ordinator Helen McKeon said the Wagga hospital was targeted as a potential donor site based on the number of elective hip replacements carried out and the support of staff.

“The orthopaedic medical staff support the femoral head donation program and information about it is freely available to patients,” she said.