An Altona North woman has told of her family’s ordeal after her younger brother died, her uncle crashed his car and thieves stole her older brother’s car containing items for the funeral.
MeiLing Egan’s 32-year-old brother, Jay Clucas, died on Monday after battling depression. He had been on life support for four days.
About an hour after Jay was initially found, Ms Egan’s Uncle Rod left the house upset and had a severe car crash and remains in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Then a day after Jay died, his older brother, Brad, had his white Range Rover stolen from his Point Cook home.
The car contained photos to be used for Jay’s funeral, along with personal items including Brad’s family passports needed for their flight to Bali on Monday.
But some good has emerged from tragedy.
JAY LUCAS (VIA FACEBOOK)
Ms Egan said while at Footscray Hospital, the family learned Jay was an organ donor.
“We were surprised by Western Hospital telling us that only four people that passed last year at Footscray Hospital were organ donors and we could not believe that.
“Jay, from what we understood, has helped six recipients.
“We’re really happy with that. There’s a silver lining to what has happened.
“When they wheeled [Jay] away to operate … we were saying, go and help these families.
“It just put such a smile on my mum’s face to know that her little boy’s still with us in some way.”
Community support
Ms Egan said she wanted to thank the community for their incredible support.
Brad’s car was recovered at a Werribee shopping centre on Thursday after a photo of the stolen vehicle was widely shared on social media.
On Tuesday, the car thieves turned Brad’s iPad on and it pinged his iPhone.
The police rushed to the satellite location, which was Medford Street in Altona – famous as the street Julia Gillard used to live in.
The car wasn’t there when police arrived but was dumped two days later in Werribee.
Ms Egan’s family hopes their tragedy will raise awareness of organ donation.
They requested donations to beyondblue in lieu of flowers at Jay’s funeral today.
Anyone experiencing mental health issues can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
