An organ donation helped a mum grieve and touched four other families

He'd been on a Boxing Day surfing trip with a mate on Tasmania's east coast in 2003 when the car they were in crashed, rolled and burst into flames.

Despite the horror of the situation Aaron has left a legacy by saving the lives of four others.

Since his death more than twenty years ago, Mrs Polley has strongly advocated for people to register as organ donors.

DonateLife Week aims to raise awareness and start conversations. It takes place each year at the end of July and runs this year from July 28 to August 4.

Mrs Polley said the family had sat down and discussed their thoughts on the topic around 18 months before Aaron's death, prompted by something they had seen on television.

"Aaron said, 'Well, what good are my organs to me when I'm dead? Of course I'd donate,'" Mrs Polley said.

She said it wasn't until after Aaron's death they were informed he'd signed up as a donor.

"That spoke volumes of his integrity and the young man he was," she said.

"That, in itself, made it easy in our horror to say 'yes' because we'd had the conversation."

A Victorian parliamentary inquiry into increasing the number of registered organ and tissue donors was presented to the Legislative Assembly on March 20, 2024. The final report highlighted 41 recommendations.

A key finding was families were more likely to provide consent for a donation to proceed if there'd been a meaningful conversation around it and if the family knew about the potential donor's wishes.

"The trend over the past decade has been 9 in 10 families [87 per cent] say yes to donation if their family member is registered, noting in 2022 it was 8 in 10," the inquiry noted.

"When the family member was not registered and the family was not aware, this drops to just 4 in 10 [44 per cent]."

Since her son's death, Mrs Polley's family has been anonymously contacted by the all four of the organ recipients which largely helped her family through their grieving journey.

"Especially in the early days, it was very much a light at the end of the tunnel knowing not just those four people, but the ripple effect of their families and friends and their life," she said.

"We really encourage families to chat so [when] faced with that awful question, you're not wondering - you know what your loved one has expressed and wished."

The Victorian parliamentary inquiry said organ or tissue donations could help families "come to terms with the loss of a loved one" and "salvage something positive".