Magee: My son donated brain to help find a cure

Legendary RTÉ star Jimmy Magee hopes that his son’s donor brain could help provide the cure for the disease that killed him.

Jimmy Magee’s eldest son Paul became one of the first people in Ireland to become a donor to the brain bank in Beaumont Hospital after he died in 2008 from motor neuron disease.

The commentator told the Tubridy Show he would love to see his son’s brain being used to provide a breakthrough for the terminal condition.

“While he was able to speak he knew there was no cure for motor neurone disease, certainly not in his time. He decided he would bequeath his brain to research which was in Beaumont Hospital. He was one of the first contributions to the brain bank.

“His brain is alive and well in Beaumont Hospital at this moment. Maybe there is a slight chance that somewhere down the line someone will be diagnosed with motor neurone disease and Paul’s brain will be used in research.

“That for me will be the greatest legacy that any of my family could leave to this world. That would be wonderful.”

The broadcaster suffered the premature death of his father, his wife Marie at the age of 54, and his son Paul but he said he got through life with his glass half-full attitude.

He said his son was in a living hell in his final days battling the degenerative muscle disease.

“He learned the progression of it and what would happen and eventually he would die. He only lasted a year and five months.

“In the end he couldn’t help himself. He was genuinely incapable of anything. He couldn’t move a finger or a hand or a toe or couldn’t speak.

“The only thing he could do was smile. I will always remember him for his smile. If you told him a story he thought was reasonably funny he would smile. If you asked him a question and the answer was ‘Yes’ he would smile. He had no answer for ‘no’.”

And he said he felt his son’s presence constantly at his side.

“He’s with me night, noon and morning. I can see his face at the other side of the table as I speak to you,” he told Ryan Tubridy.

The RTÉ star also told how he believed he helped to bring a young man out of three-month coma with his famous voice when a man came to Montrose looking for his help.

“He said his son had a serious motorcycle accident and he was wired up to the machine and they were pulling the plugs tomorrow and he didn’t want them to do it.

“I said ‘don’t let them do it’. I absolutely believe that only God should take you off this Earth, nobody else.

“He said he was a great fan of mine and listened to everything I did. I went downstairs and I went into the studio and told the operator to turn on the machine.”

He recorded a special broadcast especially for the young man lying in the hospital bed.

After two weeks the father returned again and said they were losing hope so the broadcaster pleaded with him to play the young man one more tape.

“I went down to the studio again and did another couple of words.

“The fact of the matter is that chap is working in Dún Laoghaire in an office. He woke up. I’m not saying I woke him up but he woke up.

“All of which proves do not be pulling plugs on people.”