"The program was a relatively slow build but we now have over 5000 donors on our living donor database. "Once it became known in the Gold Coast and Queensland that we were accepting bodies for anatomy and research, people were quite moved by that. "We started in the order of five years in the first year to where we now accept about 50 donors." Professor Forwood said the bodies donated had been used for learning purposes and research conducted in their anatomy faculty. "We have identified anatomy variations that haven't been identified previously because it has clinical importance for surgeons they need to be aware," he said.

"It's a different experience learning with bodies and grasping a good understanding of it because digital images can't replace the touch and texture of pathology structures." Looking back on the success of the program, professor Forwood said it began when medical and dentistry programs were introduced in the university. "Griffith started teaching human anatomy in 2001 but we were borrowing donors from the University of Queensland," he said. "As the faculty of medicine grew, there was a greater need to have our own anatomy." Professor Forwood said university opened a new building opposite the Gold Coast University Hospital, they created the body donation program in 2007.

"We believed it would go this far but we did't believe our facility change quite as fast as it did," he said. "Since 2007, we have had 410 donors accepted into the facility, and have close to 5000 living donors on our donor database." Professor Forwood said there were very strict guidelines when allowing people to register as well as accepting bodies at the time of death. Those interested need to make an inquiry, read through information booklets about the program and signing a consent form witnessed by two people and indicate their next of kin.

"There's a number of criterias we look at but the biggest thing we look at is the time of death," Professor Forwood said. Professor Mark Forwood, Griffith University Professor Mark Forwood speaks about their body donation program. Credit:Griffith University "We need to get a donor at the time of death within three days and that can depend on the circumstances. "For example, they may have past away at home and have been there for a day or more so by the time someone discovers this and the body is sent to our facilities, the condition of body deteriorate in time." Professor Forwood said they also would take into account a person who had cancer or infectious diseases.

"Whether the donor had an infectious disease or relatively recent surgery, make it difficult to embalm the body and infectious disease causes a risk to our students and staff," he said. "Another thing to consider is that we have to embalm the body to preserve it for the program and there's about 20 litres that’s put into a body during the process. "So if someone is 80 or 90 kilograms, they’ll be over 100 kilograms afterwards and that's an occupation hazard, having to move a very large body around the facility. "An overweight body has a lot of fat tissue that doesn't help preserve the body but a severely underweight body would also have very little muscle tissue so we can't use either in the program." Professor Forwood said despite the strict requirements, there had been more than 400 donors accepted who donated their bodies for either a fixed term of three years or and indefinite period.