Tipp liver transplant recipient features in online awareness event

Twenty-one-year-old liver transplant recipient student Tomas Caffrey from Holycross, will feature in a video online webinar launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week 2021 on Tuesday, March 23rd, which is organised by the Irish Kidney Association. Tomas is a third year student in Hotel & Leisure Management at Athlone IT.

The Irish Kidney Association (IKA) looks forward to celebrating the annual Organ Donor Awareness Week 2021 with many public sites around the country being lit up in green from Saturday, March 27th, until Saturday, April 3rd. The online national launch for Organ Donor Awareness Week 2021 on Tuesday, March 23rd, included a video presentation by the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly,

The Tipperary sites that will be lit up in green for the duration of Organ Donor Awareness Week  (March 27th - April 3rd) which includes Carrick Municipal District , Civic Offices Clonme/ and the Town Hall in Clonmel.

Whilst many things have been put on pause during the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for organ donation and transplantation continues. Despite the unprecedented challenges which the pandemic has presented, organ transplants have continued thanks to organ donors and their families and also the dedicated transplant teams in our transplanting hospitals, Beaumont, St Vincent’s, The Mater and Temple Street.

At any one time in Ireland there are between 550 and 600 people on waiting lists for organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas. There was a fall in the number of transplants in 2020 across all the national transplant programmes. Whilst the 190 transplants carried out were 84 less than in 2019, the thoughtfulness of the 62 deceased donors (last year) in these very challenging times is inspiring.

Speaking at the national launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week, Ms. Carol Moore, Chief Executive of the Irish Kidney Association said, “Sadly Covid-19 had and continues to have a serious unwelcome impact on the transplant community. Initial medical advice was to cocoon. Suddenly people previously leading a normal life, can no longer attend work or socialise. There was fear and anxiety about the risks amongst patients attending hospitals. This has also been significant impact on people’s mental healthi. A number of people in the dialysis and transplant community died with Covid-19, and we would like to express our deep sympathies to their families.”

Full details on www.ika.ie/donor week2021