SINEAD’S TRUE GIFT OF LIFE
DROGHEDA woman Sinead Faulkner truly knows what it’s like to receive the gift of life.
Eight years ago, she was given a liver transplant, and with organ donor week starting this Friday, she is urging everyone to consider carrying a donor card, so that others may also get a second chance.
‘No words can express my gratitude to the family of the young person whose liver I received, says Sinead, now a beautiful and healthy 26-yearold, working as a make-up artist in her studio in Peter Street. ‘‘If I wasn’t for them, I simply wouldn’t be here, and I will always be grateful.’
Sinead’s illness only started when she was 13 years of age, and a first year student in Our Lady’s College, Greenhills.
‘I had never had a sick day in my life, but one day, I just felt so unbelievably tired, I could hardly get up out of the bed. It was right before the first year exams, and my mum thought I was trying to get out of doing them,’ she says with a smile.
‘But I could barely keep my eyes open in school, so they next day, I went to a doctor, and initially they thought it was appendicitis, but after tests in the Lourdes, they found a problem with my autoimmune system.’
What this meant for Sinead was her own body’s immune system was attacking the normal components, or cells, of the liver, causing inflammation and liver damage.
‘I was transferred to Crumlin hospital, where I spent four weeks, missing the exams in the end,’ says Sinead.
‘I was put on medication immediately to weaken my immune system, to stop what it was doing to me. It was all just so strange, as there was no explanation, or history of it in the family.’
And so began a long road for the Mell woman, with regular trips to the children’s hospital in Dublin until her 18th birthday.
‘ There didn’t ever seem any need for a transplant, and I was able to lead a fairly normal life, even though I got pneumonia, and nearly died of septicemia when I was 16,’ throws Sinead into the conversation, as if it was an everyday occurrence!
‘It all came to a head though when I was 19, and collapsed on the day I started my college course in Colaiste Dulaigh.’
Feeling desperately unwell, Sinead made it home but overnight coughed up an entire basin of blood.
‘It was so frightening, and we all knew there was something seriously wrong,’ she recalls with emotion.
‘I lost three quarters of my blood that night and received two transfusions, and because I was now an adult, was transferred to St Vincent’s where I spent a week in a coma.’
And finally began the wait for a donor as Sinead was placed on the list for a liver transplant.
‘I got called once when I was second on the list for a liver, but the girl ahead of me was a match, and I was so disappointed, as I had geared myself up for it,’ says Sinead.
‘But finally in March of 2010, I got a match that was 99.9% mine, and within hours, I was on the operating table.’
Sinead’s determination to recover was incredible, and she was back to work in a month, and given the green light to go travelling a year later.
‘I always wanted to travel, and never thought I could, but the decision by that family let me spread my wings, and I spent two years in Australia and Asia with my partner Gary Fleming from Mornington,’ she says with a huge grin.
‘Without the donation, I wouldn’t have done any of that. Carrying a card is life changing for someone.’
Organ Donor Week is March 31st to April 7th. Free cards are available from the Irish Kidney Association or download the App.