By Luke Voogt
Cats defender Tom Lonergan can look forward to holding his first child this weekend thanks to dedicated doctors and litres of blood donations.
Wife Kim is due to give birth on Saturday, 10 years after a sickening on-field collision cost Lonergan a kidney and nearly his life.
“I’m just so incredibly grateful we’ve got such great human beings in the world,” he said while visiting staff at Geelong hospital this week.
Lonergan suffered severe damage to his right kidney in the now-infamous collision, backing into a marking contest against Melbourne at Simonds Stadium during round 21 in 2006.
Medical staff pumped an estimated 40 units of blood into his body, almost draining supplies of his uncommon blood type in Geelong.
Lonergan lay in a coma for four days and lost 17kg as he underwent trauma surgery.
He was at Geelong’s Red Cross donor centre on Wednesday ahead of Saturday’s game – also against the Demons and at Simonds Stadium.
“I looked at the draw and saw the coincidence and thought it would be a great opportunity to give back to a couple of great charities that helped me in my time of need.”
As an ambassador for Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation, which promotes organ donation, Lonergan has asked both sides to don rainbow-coloured shoelaces for Saturday’s game.
“Hopefully, we can raise awareness around organ donation,” he said.
Lonergan encouraged locals to give blood, saying Geelong was 15th in the state for donations.
“One in three people need blood in their lifetime.”
Lonergan said he was forever grateful to doctors and staff who operated on him.
“For those people to go in and save a life, it sort of blows me away.”
The 32-year-old said the incident had made him value his family, friends and team mates even more during the past 10 years.
“As a 22-year-old, you’ve got this great life ahead of you and nothing will knock you down.
“Things like that can turn you right upside down.”
