Nenagh man in campaign for irish kidney association

Next week (Saturday March 28th – Saturday April 4th) is national Organ Donor Awareness Week and Nenagh man Trevor Whyte is supporting the Irish Kidney Association's annual fundraising campaign.
Trevor (25) received a kidney transplant in 2002 when he was 12 years old. After a visit to the doctor when he was 4, he was diagnosed with diabetes insipidus, which can lead to kidney failure.
He was put on a special diet and managed to stave off dialysis treatment until he was 11 years old. He commenced a form of home dialysis where he underwent his treatment on every night for 8 hours at a time.
As a boy approaching his teens, Trevor was very self-aware and did not want his friends to know he had a tube in his side. He found it difficult to come to terms with the fact that someone would have to die in order for him to receive a kidney transplant and because of this he stalled on going on the transplant waiting list.
Trevor came around to the idea eventually and within six weeks of being put on the transplant waiting list he received a call for his life-saving transplant. He said his parents Christine and Tony were a great support to him throughout his illness.  In fact, he said his father was with him in the operating theatre and slept on the floor while he was undergoing his kidney transplant.  Trevor has an older brother called Darren.  
Trevor says: “The call came in that changed my life on a Wednesday morning in February 2002. I remember traveling up the surgery and the healing it took.
“But I was changed; no more dialysis machine. I could start living my life.  I was set for my teenage years.
“I was 12 when I received it and I’m now 25. Thanks to organ donation, I got to live my life. I got to go to college and studied photography. I got to travel and I got to be in bands, all because someone gave me an organ. That person saved my life.
“Anyone can save a life; all it takes is a simple card making you an organ donor. As I say to my friends, as I try to get them to sign up: 'The person who gave me my kidney is alive today within me, so for that I thank them'.”
There are currently 1,878 adult and 16 paediatric patients in Ireland currently receiving dialysis treatment. As part of Organ Donor Awareness Week, which is organised by the Irish Kidney Association (IKA), 'forget-me-not' flower emblems will be on sale throughout the country from IKA volunteers.  All proceeds will go towards the IKA'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 and holiday centres located in Tramore and Kerry, together with patient advocacy, advice, financial aid and rehabilitative, health promotion, and the provision of kidney patient information and education.

This year the IKA is introducing another fundraising technique. You can text 'kidney' to 50300 and €2 will be donated from your mobile phone account to the IKA.
For more information, contact the Irish Kidney Association: LoCall 1890 543639 or Freetext the word DONOR to 50050. Visit website www.ika.ie.