Kildare woman takes part in TV broadcast for organ donors

Thousands of organ donor families and grateful transplant recipients will tune in from at home and abroad to watch the Irish Kidney Association’s 36th Annual Service of Remembrance & Thanksgiving. 

The pre-recorded interfaith Service will be broadcast on RTÉ News Channel*and Live on RTÉ Player on Sunday, 21st November (2.15pm) coinciding with the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and the month of All Saints.

Four of the eight donor families who participated in the filming of the ‘virtual’ Service, which was recorded at Merrion Road Church in Dublin 4, remember their loved ones who became organ donors following fatal road traffic incidents.

It is the second year in a row, for the event to be held virtually and pre-recorded by Kairos Communications, due to safety concerns around the pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, the annual event attracted a physical congregation of close to 2,000 people. At last year’s first ‘virtual’ Service, 64,000 households nationwide tuned in to watch its first viewing on RTÉ and it was streamed in 24 other countries. 

For many organ donor families this unique annual Service has become an anniversary to remember their loved ones, and for transplant recipients, the opportunity to honour and give thanks for the wonderful ‘gift of life’ they have received.

The Irish Kidney Association is asking the public to actively participate in this years’ Service, especially during the very symbolic Service of Light Ceremony, when it is hoped that in households the length and breadth of the country, and beyond, a candle will be lit in memory of deceased donors who gave the gift of life. This ceremony is led by two members of the successful Transplant Team Ireland sports team – Dubliners Harry Ward (team captain) from Baldoyle, who received a kidney transplant from a deceased donor fourteen years ago, and Sandra Doyle from Beaumont, who has received two lifesaving liver transplants, her first in 2003 and second in 2017.

The interdenominational Service, an occasion for both sadness and joy, includes clergy, a humanist celebrant, as well as organ transplant recipients, families of organ donors and members of the medical profession involved in organ donation and transplantation. Music and song by cantor Dr. Sharon Lyons and the Pro-Nuova Music Group is interspersed between poignant symbolic processions and meaningful scripture, reflections and expressions of gratitude, selflessness, and faith in humanity.

A letter by President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, who is patron to the Irish Kidney Association, is read aloud at the Service. In an extract from the President’s message, he states that “The act of organ donation is a reminder of the great advancements that have been achieved in medical science in recent times. It is also a reminder of the extraordinary spirit of humanity and human solidarity that exists within our society, and of the many people whose lives are guided by a fundamental instinct of compassion and care for others”.

As a prelude to the Service filmed in Dublin, Marie Fowley, a kidney and pancreas transplant recipient, filmed at her local Garden of Reflection in Doorly Park, Sligo introduces ‘Jealous of the Angels’ sung by sixteen-year-old Leanne Rowlette, also from Sligo, whose mother, Sally, passed away eight years ago following childbirth and was an organ donor.

The Service includes contributions from the Very Rev. Gareth Byrne on behalf of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell, as well as Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin & Glendalough Dr. Michael Jackson. The Service is facilitated by Parish Priest, the Very. Rev. Fr. Fergus O’Connor with Chief Celebrant Very Rev. Damian O’Reilly presiding.

Reciting a poem at the Service is Emma Sides from Dublin representing the Humanist Association of Ireland. Narrating throughout the Service is Colin Mackenzie, the national honorary chairman of the Irish Kidney Association, from Portmarnock, Dublin.

Since its inception 36 years ago, the Service has become a hugely important event in the calendar of members of the organ donation and transplant community.

The confidential database for organ donor families is held by Organ Donation Transplant Ireland (ODTI). The first and second readings at the Service are delivered by ODTI Clinical Lead Dr. Catherine Motherway, an Intensive Care Consultant in the University of Limerick, and ODTI Director Prof. Jim Egan, a Consultant Lung Transplant Physician at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. Other members of the medical profession taking part are Dr.  Niamh Dolan, a Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist at Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street and Aoife Coffey, Transplant Co-ordinator at the National Liver Transplant Service in St. Vincent’s University Hospital.

Organ donor families recorded at the Service include Jo and Steve O’Donovan from Ballymacoda, Co Cork whose six-year-old son’s Luke’s organs were donated after a tragic road death. The parents of two other deceased organ donor road traffic victims in the recorded Service are Sarah and Pat Powell from Gurteen in Sligo and Maureen Shiel from Loughrea in Galway.

Patrick Shanahan and Mary Dillon, the husband and sister of another road traffic victim and organ donor, bring forget-me-not flower emblems, the Irish Kidney Association’s symbol of transplantation, to the altar. The late Siobhan Shanahan, née Brosnan, a native of Ballybunion, Co Kerry and late of Adare, Co Limerick, who passed away in April this year, had worked as an Organ Donor Manager at University Hospital Limerick supporting grieving families in their decision to donate.  

Larry Moloney, from Thurles,Co Tipperary who played in the historic Munster team of 1978 that beat the All Blacks at Thomond Park, also has a role at the Service. His beloved wife Rose, became an organ donor following a brain haemorrhage. Larry, native of Bruree, Co Limerick, carried the cross to the altar in the opening procession watched on by his son Shane Moloney, who also lives in Thurles is a garda stationed in Carlow town. Two other organ donor families of loved ones who suffered brain traumas which led to their death, are filmed at the Service.

The Book of Remembrance, a ‘Roll of Honour’, has been an integral part of the Service since its inception with the names of organ and tissue donors carefully inscribed by Annette Daly from Glenageary, Co Dublin for the past 36 years.

Taking part in a procession with the Book of Remembrance, was mother Kirsty Donnellan from Tulla, Co. Clare whose 17 year old daughter Scarlett became an organ donor after her untimely death. Scarlett loved the colour yellow and as a tribute, Kirsty and the late Scarlett’s younger sister Freya (age 7) wore the colour yellow as they carried the Book of Remembrance to the altar.

Another symbolic procession includes a large Organ Donor Card being carried to the altar by heart transplant recipient Aoife Farrell from Bray, Co Wicklow who has undergone two heart transplants ten years apart, the first when she was just 19 years old. Carrying the large Organ Donor Card with Aoife was Crystal Gail Spollen, native of Lucan, Dublin and now living in Kinnegad, Co. Westmeath, whose oldest daughter Neveah became an organ donor after she passed away just weeks before her tenth birthday.

Also filmed in an entry procession at the Remembrance & Thanksgiving Service was  Patrick McGovern from Virginia, Co. Cavan grateful for the liver transplant he received in 2020 during Covid. Reading at the Service was mother of two Elaine Kavanagh, from Newbridge, Co. Kildare (and a native of Kildare) who underwent a lifesaving lung transplant in 2016.

Kidney transplant recipient Deirdre Lynch, from Liselton, Co. Kerry and a secondary school teacher in Blarney, Co Cork, read Our Lord’s Prayer ‘as gaeilge’. Michael Dwyer, from Cabinteely, Dublin, is enjoying the success of a deceased donor kidney transplant which he received 21 years ago, and it was therefore fitting that he read a prayer of thanksgiving.

Josh Harbourne (9) from Tallaght, Dublin 24 was the only child transplant recipient at the Service and the only person in attendance who received a transplant organ from a living donor.  Two years ago, Josh’s mother Karen Kelly donated a kidney to him. She accompanied him in a gifts procession as he carried a collaboration of his two favourite interests to the altar – the Lego model of Harry Potter’s ‘Hedwig the Owl’.

Fr. Finbarr Treacy, Producer at Kairos Communications, worked closely in planning the Service with the Liturgy Committee which includes Irish Kidney Association (IKA) board members Valerie Brady, from Navan, Meath, Joan Gavan, from Donohill, Tipperary, Patricia May, from Brownshill, Carlow and Colin Mackenzie, IKA Honorary National Chairman, from Portmarnock, Dublin. They were assisted by Colin White, IKA National Advocacy & Projects Manager, also from Balbriggan, Dublin and husband to a kidney patient who has been undergoing dialysis treatment for over 20 years. Colin White had the honour of reading the President of Ireland’s letter aloud.

The beautiful flower arrangements which adorned the altar were prepared by Una Whelan, from Bray, Co Wicklow, a member of the Dublin East Wicklow branch of the Irish Kidney Association and wife of kidney transplant recipient John Whelan, the National Honorary Secretary and former National honourary Chairman of the Irish Kidney Association.

*RTÉ News Channel can be found on Saorview #21, Sky Ireland #521, Virgin Media Ireland #200, Eir #517 or via the RTÉ News app or live and on catch-up on the RTÉ Player. Following the Service broadcast, it will be available on the Irish Kidney Association’s website www.ika.ie

Organ Donor Cards can be obtained by phoning the Irish Kidney Association  on 01 6205306 or Free text the word DONOR to 50050. You can also visit the website www.ika.ie/get-a- donor-card or download a free ‘digital organ donor card’ APP to your phone.