This lucky mum’s story to feature in organ campaign

THE story of a 51-year-old Southside mother who narrowly survived a devastating heart attack will be featured as part of this year’s Organ Donor Awareness Week.

Running from April 1 to 8 this year, the campaign will be launched on Tuesday, March 28 at the Mansion House.

One of those whose life has been saved by an organ transplant, Gina Lenehan, from Ranelagh, will be on hand to help highlight the importance of the campaign.

Gina, a pharmacist at Trinity Pharmacy in Westland Row, received a heart transplant in 2015. The mother of three teenagers had not been on a heart waiting list as she was in good health.

She had no prior warning signs that she was about to suffer spontaneous heart dissection which, as she says, shredded her heart.

She was rushed to hospital and her last memory was arriving at the hospital doors at St James’s Hospital and then waking up 10 days later in the Mater Hospital after receiving a heart transplant two days previously.

As a pharmacist, she had always advocated for organ donor awareness and the donor card and made a presentation at the national launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week last year.

Lisa Carney (28) from Raheen, in Tallaght, is another Southsider whose story will be used to promote the campaign.

Lisa’s failing kidney diagnosis came in 2014 when she visited her doctor as she was concerned her face had become very swollen a few weeks after one of her legs had swollen up while on a flight.

She also had unexplained weight gain over a few months and had put on about five stone.

She had worked in administration five days a week but due to her tiredness she was forced to reduce her working hours to a three-day week and not currently in employment

 She now undergoes dialysis treatment which she commenced in September 2016 three times a week for three hours at a time at the Beacon Hospital.

She is currently on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.

Prior to her diagnosis, she and her fiancé Joseph Higgins were saving for a house and planning to get married and have a family.

However, when she got sick they moved out of an apartment they were renting and moved back into Joseph’s parents’ house.

She is now also taking medication and is back to her normal weight. She explains that a transplant would transform her life.

She would have more energy, be able to return to work, start saving again and plan ahead for a wedding to her childhood sweetheart and hopefully raise a family together. 

Her fiancé and sister and brother all hope to be considered for living kidney donation.

Organ Donor Awareness Week serves as a fundraising exercise for the Irish Kidney Association.

Throughout the week the association’s volunteers will be out on the streets, and in shopping centres throughout the country, selling ‘forget-me-not-flower’ emblems, brooches, pens and shopping trolley discs.

 All proceeds will go towards the Irish Kidney Association’s aid for patients on dialysis and those patients fortunate enough to have received a kidney transplant.

The Irish Kidney Association’s charitable activities include the provision of a 13-double bedroom free accommodation facility for patients and their families in the grounds of Beaumont Hospital.

There are also holiday centres located in Tramore and Kerry.

Organ Donor Cards can be obtained by phoning the Irish Kidney Association on LoCall 1890543639 or freetext the word DONOR to 50050. Also visit the website www.ika.ie

It is now possible to store an organ donor card, the ‘ecard’ on Smart mobile phones.

Simply search for ‘Donor ECard’ at the IPhone Store or Android Market.