This article is from page 8 of the 2013-04-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
UP TO 50 people in Clare live week to week on dialysis, and most of these people are on a waiting list for a kidney transplant.
The average wait for a life saving organ donation is now up to three years according to Peggy Eustace, treasurer of the Clare branch of the Irish Kidney Association.
There are currently 36 people from Clare travelling to the haemodialysis treatment unit at the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick and to the Fresenius Unit on the Dock Road Limerick for treatment.
Clare people from the north of the county travel to Unit 7 in Merlin Park, while up to half a dozen are on home dialysis.
There are three members of three different Clare families awaiting a transplant, as in many cases the conditions that lead to organ failure are hereditary.
This year Ms Eustace and the IKA are encouraging people not just to support their fundraising efforts during organ donor week, but also to carry a donor card or avail of the organ donor section of their drivers licence.
“There is a great debt of gratitude to families of donors who give the gift of life at a very difficult time,” said Ms Eustace.
Last year 78 Irish families made that decision and 206 organ donation operations took place.
In 2010 however there was almost a record low for organ donation, 2011 was a record high and 2012, at 17 per cent less than the previous year, was below average. The Irish Kidney Association chief executive, Mark Murphy, said, “I don’t know of another European country, even of a similar size population, with such wide swings in deceased donor activity.”
Throughout this week IKA volunteers will be out on the streets, and in shopping centres throughout the county, selling ‘forget me not flower’ emblems (the symbol of transplantation), brooches, pens and shopping trolley discs. All proceeds will go towards the Irish Kidney Association’s aid for patients on dialysis and those patients who have received a kidney transplant. Donor cards will also be available.