Southsiders share stories for Organ Donor Awareness Week

A NUMBER of Southsiders are supporting Organ Donor Awareness Week this year by highlighting their stories.

The focus of this year’s week is to remind individuals to talk to their families about their organ donation wishes and keep the reminders of their decision visible by carrying the organ donor card.

Participants can also permit Code 115 to be included on their driver’s license or download the ‘digital organ donor card’ APP to their smartphone.

 Popular RTÉ TV and radio broadcaster, Ray D’Arcy, who has taken up the voluntary role of national ambassador for the week (March 30 – April 6) is encouraging the public to support organ donation for transplantation by letting their loved ones know their wishes as well as supporting the work of the campaign organisers, the Irish Kidney Association, by buying a forget-me-not flower emblem, the symbol of transplantation.

For organ donor cards visit www.ika.ie or Freetext DONOR to 50050.

Among those whose stories are featured in this year’s campaign is Luke Concannon (13) from Lucan who underwent a kidney transplant in March 2014 from a deceased donor just before his ninth birthday.

Luke’s mother Karen Concannon explained that Luke, her only child, was born with kidney issues and commenced dialysis treatment when he was just a few months old which he continued with for almost nine years until the time he got his transplant five years ago. 

Initially he underwent a form of dialysis treatment in his home every night for two years and then he progressed to hospital dialysis at Temple Street Children’s Hospital which he attended four to five times weekly.

 While he was on dialysis his diet and fluid intake was very restricted and he was only allowed to have a maximum of 200mls of fluid a day. Up until the time he received his transplant he had to have numerous hospital stays.

 Karen said: “It is because of Luke’s donor kidney that he is now a normal teenager and he can try out anything he wants to do and eat what he wants.

“He is in now in first year at Lucan Community College which he enjoys. He loves swimming, and continues with his hobby of building with Lego which he has done from the time he was a young child in Temple Street.

“He is also an avid coder and is a member of the coding club in Clondalkin and he will be entering an animation film he developed for a national competition which will take place at the RDS in May.”

Karen added that every single night at bedtime Luke thanks his donor for the life he now enjoys and that he also prays for all the sick people around the world waiting for transplants.

Another Southsider, Greg Foley, a DCU lecturer from Sandyford, who underwent a double lung transplant in 2002 in Newcastle is also featured in the campaign.

Greg said he was grateful to his deceased donors for his transplants and after the successful operation he wrote anonymously to the family of the deceased double lung donor.

He felt burned out after the year on dialysis and the kidney transplant.

While he is delighted with the transformational effects that transplantation has brought to him, he is very aware that his transplant kidney may fail, and he will need another transplant in the future.