Kildare's Ray D'Arcy is new ambassador for 2019 National Organ Donor Awareness Campaign

Ray D’Arcy, the popular RTÉ TV and radio broadcaster, has taken up the voluntary role of national ambassador for Organ Donor Awareness Week 2019.

The week runs from March 30 to April 6. The aim is to encourage the public to support organ donation for transplantation by letting their loved ones know their wishes (#Have the Chat) as well as supporting the work of the campaign organisers, the Irish Kidney Association, by buying a forget-me-not flower emblem, the symbol of transplantation.

Ray said, “It’s such an honour to be asked to be ambassador for this year’s campaign. Organ donation is something that I feel very strongly about. Listening to people’s stories down through the years about organ transplantation, dialysis and organ donation, sometimes heart-warming and at other times heart-wrenching, I honestly believe that there is no better gift in life than the gift of organ donation.

“I have heard from grieving families about the solace they have got from donating the organs of someone they have loved knowing that other individuals and families have benefited.  The news of a person receiving a transplant affects the families involved and it ripples through communities around Ireland.

“I have also heard how people’s lives have been transformed through organ transplantation and I commend the donors who have made this possible. There are approximately 550 people in Ireland awaiting an organ transplant and hopefully these people’s lives will be saved through organ transplantation.  I would encourage everyone to discuss organ donation with their family members as I have done with mine. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation, but it is such a vital and potentially life-saving one. The legacy of organ donation by selfless deceased donor families is profound.”

Chief Executive of the Irish Kidney Association, Mr. Mark Murphy said, “It’s wonderful to have Ray D’Arcy, who enjoys household name recognition, lending his support once again to the Irish Kidney Association twenty-one years after first fronting the annual campaign. Ray has always demonstrated great empathy for people touched by organ failure. To have such a popular figure representing the Irish Kidney Association (IKA), a charity organisation of patients and carers, carries with it huge impetus to the work we have undertaken advocating and caring for our patients”.

The IKA is the organisation charged with the promotion and distribution of the organ donor card in Ireland through Organ Donation and Transplant Ireland (ODTI), the organ procurement service of the HSE.

There are approximately 550 people in Ireland awaiting life-saving heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas transplants. Thanks to the gift of organ donation almost 4,000 transplanted people in Ireland are enjoying extended life.

For organ donor cards visit www.ika.ie or Freetext DONOR to 50050.

The focus of Organ Donor Awareness Week is to remind individuals to keep reminders of their organ donation wishes visible by carrying the organ donor card and permitting Code 115 to be included on their driver’s license or downloading the ‘digital organ donor card’ APP to their smartphone.