Lidija Domazet: People Are Afraid to Become Donors

Singer Lidija Domazet, best known for her run on the music competition “Nikad nije kasno,” revealed that she signed up as an organ donor ten years ago. She discussed the decision on Grand television, and her comments were picked up by entertainment outlets on September 14.

Domazet says she made the decision a decade ago, at a time when organ donation had only just started being discussed in Serbia.

I was moved by exactly that, and I decided to donate my organs. That happened 10 years ago, when people here had just started talking about it. I asked around about where it could be done, and I told my family about the decision.

Before she said anything publicly, the singer first talked to her family and asked around about where the donation paperwork could actually be handled. Only once everything was arranged did she share the decision with the public, on her Instagram profile.

That post, she says, didn’t bring her only praise.

After I posted on social media that I was a donor, I got some mild criticism, people said things like that should be kept to yourself. Maybe that’s true, but I also said at the time that I’d consider it a success if I got even one person to become a donor. I did. My friend Marina sent me a photo of her own donor card a few days later, and I had accomplished my mission.

So the goal she had set for herself, that at least one person would become a donor because of her, was met within days. Her friend Marina sent her a photo of her own donor card soon after, and Domazet still brings that up today as proof the public post wasn’t a misstep, that it had exactly the effect she wanted.

In the Domazet household, donating isn’t only her cause. The singer says her husband has been a voluntary blood donor for three decades, and she points to that example to show how much a simple gesture can mean to someone else.

What’s nicer than when my husband, who has been a blood donor for 30 years, goes and gives blood when someone needs it? Is there anything nicer than knowing you saved someone’s life?

The singer also says she doesn’t like her decision described in grand terms.

There was some talk about people calling me a hero, that’s too strong a word. The fact is that countries in the region are a little more aware that it’s a necessity.

Asked why a donor card still isn’t the norm in Serbia, Domazet has her own explanation.

People are afraid to become donors, I think it’s mostly some religious prejudice, I’m almost convinced that’s what’s holding it back. It’s very important to me to carry my donor card in my wallet.

So Domazet names religious prejudice, not a lack of information or an organizational problem, as the main obstacle to more donors in Serbia. She says she carries her donor card every day, in her wallet, the same way she’d carry an ID or a driver’s license, as a reminder that the decision she made ten years ago still stands.

Lidija Domazet is best known to audiences for her run on the music competition “Nikad nije kasno,” where she built her career before she started speaking publicly about topics outside music as well. The story about donating her organs isn’t her first public comment on the subject, but this is the first time she has explained in detail both her own reasons and the reactions she got when she first shared the decision with her followers.