Witsie honoured in 2022 Queen’s Birthday Awards
- Wits Alumni Relations
One of Australia’s highest civilian honours acknowledges Brian Myerson for his contribution to community health.
Co-founder of organ donation group ShareLife, Brian Myerson (BSc TRP 1975, MBA 1978) received an Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his tireless service to community health and advocacy for organ donation.
The Wits alumnus was among the 994 Australians acknowledged for meritorious and distinguished service on 13 June 2022.
“It’s an amazing honour,” he told Australian Jewish Network. “I’m also so also grateful to my family and friends, who have supported me through all my health issues and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without them,” he said.
Myerson’s advocacy has been informed by his personal journey with diabetes, which was diagnosed at the age of 11.
He said in correspondence to the Wits Alumni Relations Office that he found the “fuss very embarrassing” because “I have never sought the limelight and preferred to work quietly to achieve my goals”.
In 1972 he was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy and told that he would slowly go blind, but received experimental laser therapy and still enjoys excellent eyesight. In 1999 Myerson received a combined pancreas and kidney transplant that saved his life.
“I received a kidney and pancreas transplant from Matthew, a deceased donor, whose wonderful family had made the kind and generous decision to donate his organs when he passed away in June 1999.”
His experiences during dialysis, with people dying and others becoming depressed due to a shortage of donated organs, led him to dedicate his efforts to saving many more lives of those suffering from organ failure.
In 2003, profoundly affected by his experiences, he set about finding ways to improve the infrastructure in organ donation for transplantation in Australia. In 2008, ShareLife approached then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, with a detailed plan to focus on the systems in all the major hospitals in Australia to raise the organ donation and transplantation rate. The entire plan was approved by cabinet and launched in January 2009.
Myerson has worked for Standard Bank of South Africa, the Bank of Montreal in Canada and Hill Samuel Australia. He then directed companies in construction and development with his brother Stephen (BArch 1979, MBA 1981).
“The wonderful education I received at Wits, set me up to achieve all I have been able to do,” he said.
- Social entrepreneur Andrew Kuper (BA 1996, BA Hons 1997) was also acknowledged as an officer in the general division of the Order of Australia, for his role in founding and building LeapFrog Investments, a global impact investment corporation.