When the doctors told Rita Germanos her son Daniel needed a new kidney she knew what that meant: up to 10 years, maybe more, on a transplant wait list and no guarantee of a match.

"He was 17. He had just finished year 12. His kidneys were failing and I knew this was it," Mr Germanos said.

She didn't hesitate. She would donate her own kidney.

"Not many mothers get to test their unconditional love like this. If he needed a kidney I was going to give him mine," she said.

But a fractured back had immobilised the former Sydney nurse and she had gained too much weight to be a viable donor.

"I was prepared to do anything. I lost about 32 kilos in a little less than 12 months and presented myself to a doctor for testing.

"I had no anxiety, no fear for myself at all. My only concern was, 'I hope his body doesn't reject it'," she said.

The donated kidney kicked in almost instantaneously, the surgeons told Mrs Germanos.

"It's been six months since the transplant and he is doing exceptionally well," she said.

"And losing all that weight – I gave my son a second chance at life and probably saved my own life too," she said.

Around 1500 people are on Australian organ transplant waiting lists at any time.

Less than one-third of Australians are currently on the register.

And for those in need of a life-saving organ donation, ethnicity can affect how long they're stuck on the waiting list.

But a new campaign aims to boost the number of people from a diverse range of backgrounds to improve access to organ transplants.

Roughly 87 per cent of people who donated their organs were Caucasian, 2014 figures from the Australian and New Zealand Organ Donation show.

Just 4 to 6 per cent of organ donors were Asian, yet people from Asian backgrounds make up 16 per cent of those who need a new organ.

Organ recipients can, and frequently are, matched to a person of a different ethnicity, but genetics plays an important role, chief executive of Transplant Australia Chris Thomas said.

"You're more likely to rise to the top of the wait list if someone from your genetic background has donated the kidney," Mr Thomas said.

"We should all be able to have equal access to this precious resource, but to be able to achieve that we need all Australians, no matter their background, to register," he said.

Transplant Australia's 'Gifted' campaign aims to push more people from multicultural backgrounds to join the Australian Organ Donor Register.

NSW residents can no longer register to become organ donors on their driver's licence.

The campaign will run over the next four months in the lead up to the Australian Transplant Games that kick off in western Sydney and will showcase the athletic abilities of organ transplant recipients.

"The beauty of the transplant games is that every time we do this we get a spike in the number of people joining the register and the number of donations," she said.

"It's all about raising awareness. There's a demand for organ transplantation among people of different cultural groups, but there have been some cultural instances that need to be dealt with," she said.

She said one glaring example was the problematic definition of "brain death" among some cultures, which could prevent some viable donors from donating.

"But now we can transplant hearts, for example, after they stop beating, which could change attitudes [in favour of donating] and improve availability," she said.

"It's certainly one of our dreams to have more people with broad cultural backgrounds on the donor register and having conversations with their families," she said.

Transplant Australia data shows that if a potential donor is not registered, their family will refuse to donate their organs in 52 per cent of cases. However, 91 per cent of families will allow organ donation if their relative has registered.

"The reality is only 1 per cent of deaths are eligible for donation and that's because of the circumstances in which they die or the medical condition of the patients.

"So it's really important that if you are on a register and in a hospital and in a situation that you can become a donor that everything runs smoothly," she said.

A record 127 people donated their organs after death in NSW in 2015, amounting to 379 organ transplants, figures from the NSW Organ Tissue Donation Service showed.

"We put a lot of effort into improving our numbers," NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said, acknowledging the state's historically low donor rates.

The state is well on its way to hitting its 2016 target of 148, with 52 deceased donors by the end of May, the highest year-to-date figures in more than five years.