Zaidee’s rainbow shoelaces kicked off organ and tissue donation talks, but that was only the beginning

She couldn’t hear the humdrum beeps of monitors.

And she was certainly in the dark about a bleed in her brain that threatened to shatter the Turner family portrait.

As Zaidee entered the light, a dark cloud hung over her dad, Allan, mum, Kim, and brother, Jaz.

On December 2, 2004, Zaidee Turner died from a cerebral aneurysm and became the sole child in Victoria that year to donate organs and tissues.

“That night, we never thought about a charity,” Mr Turner said.

“We asked the hospital staff, ‘How do children get recognised as organ and tissue donors?’ and no-one could answer.”

The Turner family’s tragic circumstances were both the curse and the cause behind Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation, a charity established in her honour to bring awareness of organ and tissue donation in Australia.

Starting a charity is one thing, igniting a nationwide dialogue on a once-taboo topic is another.

For Mr Turner, the answer was simple: shoelaces.

When Zaidee was a toddler, her tiny boots were laced with rainbow shoelaces.

They were at the forefront of every step the zany, energetic child took when she ran, danced and played.

It was a perfect fit to kick off the foundation.

What started as 2000 pairs of laces in 2004 escalated to two million pairs in 2024.

“The laces were just the start of it,” Mr Turner said.

From that day forward, a campaign of loud rainbows accompanied by Zaidee’s beaming smile burst through society’s parameters, popping the silence surrounding organ and tissue donation discussion.

Zaidee’s rainbow merchandise flew out the door — wristbands, sports socks, jockey attire, swimming caps, bow ties, golf grips.

Each one whackier and more imaginative than the last.

“We tried not to pigeon ourselves into one hole when it came to ideas on how to get the message and the conversation out there,” Mr Turner said.

“We were always, and still are, thinking about what we can do to identify areas.”

In the AFL, the foundation rewrote history when it hosted a Zaidee’s Round.

A rainbow arched across the 50m mark, and the umpire’s previously white flags, adorned with Zaidee’s face, fluttered in the air as if she, too, were celebrating each goal.

No facet of the game was out of bounds, not even the classic Sherrin football.

“No-one’s ever changed a lace in a Sherrin football, it’s always been a white one,” Mr Turner said.

“On the AFL Footy Show, Shane Crawford stood there, holding up a Sherrin football with a rainbow lace stitched into it, and people were hearing about organ and tissue donation.”

Following this, regional Victoria and NSW clubs hosted their own Zaidee’s Round, sporting the signature shoelaces in support of the cause.

“In sport, no-one’s ever done campaigns the way we’ve done it — constantly and at such a large level,” Mr Turner said.

“We’ve always worked on the elite sport to start the message off and be a voice.

“Then, we see the grassroots follow.”

A prime example is Aaron Finch, a foundation ambassador who strolled out to the middle of the MCG with his bat decorated with a rainbow cricket grip.

Every time he hit a 50, up went the bat.

“When that happened, the orders on the internet went off,” Mr Turner said.

“Kids wanted to mimic what Aaron Finch and other cricket players were doing, but they didn’t want a rainbow cricket grip just because Finchy had one, there was the message behind it.”

Besides that, having children aware of organ and tissue donation was a toy’s story to tell.

“We rang up Beanie Kids and asked if we could have one of their plush toys made for Zaidee, and the lady on the phone said, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but we’ve got a rainbow bear sitting on the shelf looking for a name’,” Mr Turner said.

Call it fate, destiny or a little help from above, Zaidee’s Rainbow Poncho Bear was released, accompanied a few years later by Zaidee’s Rainbow Sock Bear.

For parents, it was a bad news bear.

After all, trying to explain to a child that a seven-year-old died and became an organ and tissue donor is challenging.

Reading a picture book, on the other hand, is simple.

Chasing Rainbows: The Zaidee Turner Story by Allan Turner was published in 2015.

With comical drawings and speech bubbles, the story of Zaidee is told, flipping the script on discussing organ and tissue donation with children.

Meanwhile, many parents and others who worked in the food industry got their heads around the subject by wearing Zaidee’s rainbow hair nets.

“It was a silly idea, but it started a conversation in a massive number of industries and sectors,” Mr Turner said.

“For a couple of years, food industries, hospital theatres and other areas right across the country wore these rainbow hair nets.

“I reckon we gave away about 750,000 hair nets over that period.”

Unique. Groundbreaking. Proud.

How Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation has communicated the message of organ and tissue donation could be summed up in three words.

“The things we’ve done and what we’ve been able to achieve ... we’ve set the benchmark in the charity sector,” Mr Turner said.

“Even if it’s not lasting, it’s memorable.”

Looking at a piece of rainbow merchandise and seeing a smiling seven-year-old staring back at you is impactful, to say the least.

But when it’s your child who has died, it stirs indescribable emotions.

“It’s always going to be hard, but I always tell myself, I’m just the voice, the message carrier,” Mr Turner said.

When Zaidee became an organ and tissue donor, she saved the lives of seven people, and the charity established in her honour has saved countless.

“It’s Zaidee. It’s all because of Zaidee,” Mr Turner said.

To learn more about Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation and organ and tissue donation in Australia, visit www.zaidee.org/