Fun run to raise awareness of organ donation

LITTLE Laura McDowell loves her jigsaws, her books, her toy kitchen and her aunt who gave her the gift of life.

The two-and-a-half year old toddler received a section of liver donated by her mum’s sister, Deirdre O’Gorman, a Wicklow-based GP, a year ago.

Yesterday Laura and her mum, Aoife O’Gorman, joined television and radio presenters playing their part in highlighting organ donation in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.

The broadcasting personalities are taking part in this Sunday’s Run For a Life organised by the Irish Kidney Association to highlight the fact that there are more than 650 people in Ireland who are awaiting organ transplants.

One of the RTÉ personalities taking part in the event that is open to everyone is sports presenter, Justin Treacy, whose wife, Vivienne Traynor, an RTÉ courts’ reporter, is a living organ donor.

Vivienne, who donated one of her kidneys to her nephew, Martin, two years ago, gave birth to a baby boy last Friday.

Aoife, a founding member of the new family support group, Children’s Liver Disease Ireland, said Laura was born in January 2009 with biliary atresia, a rare disease that is not inherited, the cause is unknown and treatments are only partially successful.

Laura developed symptoms of the disease when she was just five days old and was put on a waiting list for a liver transplant in April 2010. Despite being on the top of the waiting list for four months, no suitable organ became available.

Because Laura’s health was deteriorating at an alarming rate and there was a shortage of donated livers at the time, the question of a living related liver transplant was considered.

“Neither my husband nor I were suitable donors, so my sister volunteered and the procedure was carried out in King’s Hospital in London the following August.

“Thanks to Deirdre, who has completely recovered from the operation and has been absolutely brilliant, I have a happy, determined two-year-old who loves life,” she said. “I just wish more people knew what a difference a organ transplant makes to families like mine. My sister was just amazing, she does not look for any gratitude at all.”

Deirdre, who did not attend the event, said she was working in Africa when Laura’s liver began to fail and returned home, not knowing that a living donor would be needed and that she would be asked to be that donor.

“I was in the very privileged position of being able to offer a bit of me, at little cost to myself, to save the life of my niece,” she said.

Recently appointed director of the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Office, Prof Jim Egan, said the Run For a Life was an innovative way of getting people thinking about organ donation and the participation of recipients in the event is a positive way of showcasing the success of organ transplantation.

All proceeds raised from the fun run that takes place in Park West, Dublin at noon on Sunday will go to the Irish Kidney Association, the patients’ organisation charged with the promotion and distribution of the organ donor card in Ireland.

The event is sponsored by Astellas Pharmaceutical and coincides with European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation.

More information about the event is available at www.runforalife.ie.

*For organ donor cards free text DONOR to 50050 or Lo Call 1890 543639.