Bridging Lives: The Impact of Media, Community, and Organ Donation A reflection on Organ Donor Awareness Week 2024
On the penultimate day of last week’s Organ Donor Awareness Week 2024 (20-27 April), the spotlight intensified with RTÉ’s Late Late Show featuring rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll and Michaela Morley whose enduring friendship stems back to when he first met her when he visited Temple Street and she was just a little child on dialysis. Her life was forever altered by a kidney transplant. Their uplifting story, aired on 26th April, came with a powerful message from O’Driscoll about the life-saving legacy of organ donation citing the selfless bravery of parents Denis and Marie Kealy,from Laois, in their heartbreak of losing their little girl Hannah, she saved four lives through organ donation, and encouraging families to discuss organ donation with their loved ones and suggesting they download the donor card app on their mobile devices. The interview with presenter Patrick Kielty sparked a surge of positive commentary on social and print media bolstering organ donor awareness and action, with five hundred downloads of the donor card app in that single night.
The previous day, an RTÉ 1 radio broadcast with presenter Claire Byrne resonated with the story of the former master of the Coombe Maternity Hospital, Prof. Chris Fitzpatrick, who was inspired by watching a medical colleague Dr Dominic Natin on the presenter's previous TV show in 2019 share his story about his experience of donating a kidney altruistically. Fitzpatrick was moved to also travel to Belfast in early 2020 to donate a kidney altruistically. Amidst the height of the Brexit forore, his donor kidney journeyed seamlessly across borders, unaffected by cross-border controls, gratefully received by a kidney patient in London, in a display of life's unyielding interconnectedness. His words echoed across the airwaves, coincidentally and fittingly on National Poetry Day, stirring hearts and minds. Amidst the challenges of the COVID era, he found solace in poetry, crafting a Poetry book ‘Poetic Licence in a Time of Corona’ (published in May 2022) that includes a verse about his donor kidney which he learned was transplanted in a stranger living in London.
There is a part of me concealed
that is forever England’s to hold.
It moves in some stranger through
London’s streets plumbed and scaled;
needs no passport to live in its abode
lets me walk with a lighter load.
But amidst the heartwarming stories, there is a backdrop of the resilience of thousands of other people who have been touched by organ failure, transplantation, or organ donation. One story shared during the campaign week was about a succession of three kidney transplants within six months last year for three members of a Cork family, made possible by two deceased donors and one living kidney donor. Grandmother Margaret Fitzgerald and her son Michael and nephew Joe Cott are now enjoying new leases of life.
In Carlow, Anne Marie Byrne (47), who had quietly undergone testing seven years ago to donate a kidney to her friend's daughter, has experienced both sides of the organ donation journey. Her nephew Kevin McEvoy (34), tragically passed away last September at the Mater Hospital, where he spent his last 140 days waiting for a heart transplant, leaving behind his grieving family and his newborn first child.
Kevin’s sister Sarah McEvoy from Killeshin (Laois/Carlow) bravely shared their family's story during the national launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week. Amidst the anguish of waiting for a heart transplant, there was also community support and solidarity. The local Killeshin GAA rallied behind Kevin during his long days in hospital with restrictions on visitors, sending him videos and a signed jersey, while Stephen Cluxton sent Kevin his goalkeeper gloves with his signature and many others offered gestures of compassion. Five patients underwent heart transplants at the Mater Hospital last year and three more up until the end of March 2024.
Just over six months after Kevin’s passing, the recipient of his aunt Anne Marie Byrne’s donor kidney, Amber O’Rourke, now sixteen, embarked on her journey of giving back. Organizing a quiz fundraiser in March this year which raised over €6,000 for CHI Temple Street Hospital, where she'd spent much of her childhood, Amber flanked by her kidney donor Anne Marie at the event, embodied the spirit of resilience and gratitude, proving that even in the face of loss, there is hope, and in the reach of media, there is the power to save lives across communities.
As reported by the RSA Ireland during Organ Donor Awareness Week, there are now 1.56 million drivers who have code 115 on their license, which signals their agreement to donate their organs. That is nearly half of all license holders and an increase of more than 100,000 on last year’s figure which equates to about 2,000 each week.
On the final day of Organ Donor Awareness Week,27th April, the sun shone down on nearly five hundred people from every corner of Ireland including donor families and transplant recipients, who gathered at Quincentennial Park in Salthill, Galway for a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the Circle of Life National Commemorative Garden for Organ Donors. This was a truly respectful and fitting event on the final day of the campaign week to acknowledge and celebrate the legacy of organ donors and their families.
Speaking about the Organ Donor Awareness Week campaign, Ms. Carol Moore, Chief Executive Irish Kidney Association, said, “During Organ Donor Awareness Week, people engaged with their local communities as well as local and national media to tell their stories of donation and receiving the gift of life. We would like to thank local and national broadcast, print, and online media for amplifying their stories. Without organ donors, lives would not be saved through transplantation. In these troubled times, the organ donation and transplant community together with their supporters are role models for a kinder, more inclusive society.”
Organ Donor Awareness Week (20-27 April) was organised by the Irish Kidney Association in association with Organ Donation Transplant Ireland. The key message for the campaign which continues to be important all year round is ‘DON’T LEAVE YOUR LOVED ONES IN DOUBT, Share Your Wishes About Organ Donation. For more information on the campaign and how to get an organ donor card or donor card app and opt to support organ donation on your driver’s license which is represented by code 115 visit www.ika.ie/donorweek
CALL TO ACTION: Individuals who wish to support organ donation by sharing their wishes with their loved ones are encouraged to keep the reminders of their decision available by carrying the organ donor card, permitting Code 115 to be included on their driver’s license, or having the ‘digital organ donor card’ App on their smartphone. Organ Donor Cards can be requested by visiting the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) website www.ika.ie/get-a-donor-card or phoning the IKA on Tel. 01 6205306