A NORTHSIDE grandmother is celebrating a remarkable 44 years since receiving a living donor kidney transplant from her late sister.
Christine Kelly (67), from Griffith Avenue, was one of the first people to undergo a living donor kidney transplant in Ireland.
Organ Donor Awareness Week is running from March 31 until April 7 and Christine shared her story, via her daughter, to highlight the success of organ donation and the potential longevity of kidney transplants from living donors. Christine is “fighting fit” and her donor kidney is still going strong despite several surgeries in recent years to overcome other health issues including cancer, heart surgery and a hip replacement.
Christine received her living donor kidney transplant at Jervis Street Hospital on March 1, 1974. The living donor programme commenced at the hospital two years previously.
Sadly, Christine’s donor sister Mary, a mother of five children, passed away following breast cancer 18 years ago. Christine’s daughter, Sinead Kelly, paid tribute to her late aunt Mary.
“My mother was the second person to undergo a kidney transplant in Ireland,” said Sinead.
“It is thanks to Mary that my sister and I still have our mother with us today and that her three grandchildren can enjoy her love and support.
“My deceased aunt Mary’s children share a great bond with my mother as part of her is still alive in Christine.
“When I was just one-year-old, my mother, at the young age of 22, went into renal failure within days of giving birth to my baby sister Fiona.
“She underwent dialysis for less than a year until Mary, who herself had one child at the time, gave the ultimate gift to her sister, the ‘gift of life’.
“Mary went on to have four more children after this happy event. My mother always remembers to express her gratitude to Mary and on the anniversary of her transplant she sent flowers to Mary, before she passed away, and now marks the important event by putting flowers on her grave.”
Sinead said her mother is fighting fit and enjoying life to the full. “Decades after her transplant my mother also fought breast cancer and had two preventative surgeries as she carries the same brca1 gene as Mary,” she added.
“Over five years ago she underwent open heart surgery and she also underwent a hip transplant two years ago and concerns for the potential risk these major operations would pose to her kidney transplant proved unfounded.” Throughout this week Northside families are being urged to talk about organ donation as part of the life-saving awareness campaign.
Mark Murphy, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association, which is organising the campaign, supported by Organ Donation Transplantation Ireland (ODTI), said: “It is thanks to the gift of organ donation that almost 3,500 transplanted people in Ireland are enjoying extended life.
“At the end of 2017, there were 524 people active on the various transplant waiting pools for heart, liver, kidney, lung and pancreas.
“Advancements in medicine, combined with our hospitals’ successful transplanting teams and the generosity of families of deceased and living donors has led to this very positive outcome.”
The key message of the campaign is that families talk to each other about organ donation and keep the reminders of their willingness to donate visible by carrying the organ donor card and permitting Code 115 to be included on their driver’s license.
•Organ Donor Cards can also be obtained by phoning the Irish Kidney Association on 01-6205306 or Free text the word DONOR to 50050. Also, visit www.ika.ie/card
