Andrew gave the gift of life, as he wished
THE Irish Kidney Association is celebrating it’s 40th anniversary this year. The association announced Claire Byrne as their new Ambassador for 2018. She has taken up this voluntary role to help raise awareness and spread the message that organ donation is an important life-saving legacy.
The popular broadcaster will feature in radio and TV advertising as well as posters for the national launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week with Health Minister Simon Harris on Tuesday, March 27.
The campaign will focus on the ever-increasing demand for organ transplantation which relies on us, the public. Everyone is being encouraged to carry an organ donor card and to permit code 115 to be included on their driving licence.
This is also a chance for the Irish Kidney Association to raise funds for their great work, selling ‘forget-me-not’ flowers, emblems, brooches, pens and shopping trolley discs, as well as handing out organ donor cards.
All proceeds go towards patients on dialysis and those fortunate enough to have received a kidney transplant.
The IKA’s charitable activities include the provision of 13 double bedrooms free for patients and their families on the grounds of Beaumont Hospital. They also have holiday locations in Kerry and Tramore, together with patient advocacy, advice, counselling, financial aid and rehabilitative support. IKA’s head office is in Dublin but they have 25 branches all over the country.
THIS is a cause very close to my heart. We donated our son Andrew’s liver and kidneys when he was dying and we as a family, having discussed this many times before, felt this was what he wished too. They were not able to find a suitable donor for his heart and lungs because of his size. Andrew was 6ft five-and-a-half inches and it was explained to us that you can put a smaller heart and lungs into a larger person, but you cannot put a larger one into a small person, so we left them with him.
We had always told the children that if anything happened to either Derry or myself, to donate whatever organs we had that could be used to help others.
When the time came to speak with the transplant team, we were told they cannot approach you, you have to offer. I thought this strange, but they cannot ‘tout’ for organ donations. We were told at the time it was a selfless act but, having discussed this at length not thinking that we would be offering our only son’s organs, we felt it was the right thing to do.
There were several other young men in the ICU when Andrew was on life support, and some of them did not make it either. But unless their families offered, no one could approach them.
We will always be heartbroken at the loss of our darling boy but we know there are three people living a full life as a result of his organs being donated. We did get a letter through the IKA from a 50-something man. These letters have to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
He wrote to tell us that as a result of his rare blood type, AB Positive, he never thought he would find a match. He told us he had three children and had been virtually housebound, except for dialysis three or four times a week. Now that he had a new kidney he was back at work, he was able to go to football matches and other outings.
He wrote that he and his family had just come back from their first holiday in five years, and all because he got another chance with one of our son’s kidneys.
Losing someone you love is devastating but this letter brought a smile to our faces thinking that a little piece of our wonderful funny, witty son lived on. It was heart-warming.
I am asking you all to get an organ donor card and if you are renewing your driving licence to put the organ donor permitting code 115 on it.
When we die, we will not need our organs where we are going. To make the decision before anything happens, so that your loved ones are in no doubt about your wishes, is all I ask.
We don’t always think straight when someone we love is dying, and so many organs are lost to a potential donor as a result.
Maybe some day we will have the ‘opt out’ approach, meaning that organ donation will be a given and not a choice unless you opt out.
Until that time comes, we should all have the conversation with our loved ones so we all know what we should do.