Clonmel woman given the wonderful gift of a new life

A Clonmel woman who was facing her own mortality at a young age is now looking forward to a life full of hope.
“I was running out of time,” 30-year-old Kate Twohig told The Nationalist.
Kate, who was married last March, underwent a life-saving liver transplant operation in October.
The successful operation has had an immediate impact on not only her life but also for her husband Eoin, her parents Frank and Margaret, her three brothers Eoghan, Kevin and Brian and all her family and friends.

“They all look so happy and relieved now. I can see it in their faces. I received the most precious of gifts and everybody is so happy,” said Kate.
Kate was just 17-years-old when medics discovered she had liver function issues.
After a traumatic journey coping with her illness, Kate underwent a long-awaited liver transplant in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin on October 17.

She is now full of optimism for the future and is looking forward to a new life full of hope.
“I have been very fortunate to receive the gift of a new life. Christmas is going to be very special for all of the family,” she said.
Kate, who attended Kilcash National School and the Loreto Secondary School and also went to UCC and University of Limerick where she did her Masters, has appealed to members of the public to consider becoming an organ donor.
Following her operation Kate praised the life-saving work, awe-inspiring work being carried out at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

The following article was written by Kate Twohig in the hope that it will encourage people to consider becoming an organ donor.

Kate Twohig

I will never forget my first time attending the Liver Transplant clinic in St Vincent’s University Hospital in May 2019.
With my Mam on one arm and my now husband, Eoin, on the other, we sat waiting together surrounded by people wearing facemasks.

This was pre-pandemic when no one we knew even owned a mask. The sight brought home a reality I had been in fear of and denial about. I needed a liver transplant.

I had two autoimmune liver diseases, Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) with overlap Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). Unfortunately, PSC as the dominant disease has no cure and the medicine used to slow its progression wasn’t successful for me.

It’s a hard thing to describe, facing your own mortality in your twenties. You feel robbed. Your life is taken from you and replaced with fear and uncertainty.
You get to a place of acceptance only to be shaken time and again into having to accept something new and terrifying that has presented itself. You grieve for your old self, for your future self.

You hide yourself from people because it’s too difficult to be what you perceive as “a burden” to others.
With time though, living with my reality became my new normal. I adjusted, as did my family and friends. I opened up about aspects of what I was going through on social media and I began to accept that a life can exist in the complexity of a life-limiting illness.

I began taking small steps to live while I was still alive and created a life that I desperately wanted to keep living.
My perspective became one of hope rather than despair and it sustained me throughout the long and difficult wait. But it was worth every hard moment of doubt and fear to be where I am today.

On Monday, October 17 at 4pm, I received the call that I had been waiting 23 months for.
My first call last June had ended up not being a suitable match, so I didn’t get my hopes up that this would be any different. But it was the call that changed my life. Having been officially placed on the transplant waiting list in November 2020, the wait was finally over. A family in the depths of the hardest day of their lives honoured their loved one’s wishes and said yes to organ donation.

The surgical team at St Vincent’s, led by Mr Emir Hoti, operated for 10 hours. My donor’s liver was transplanted into me and from there I have been utterly changed. Despite the recovery I was about to undertake I could feel immediately upon waking up in ICU that I had a healthy liver functioning as it should inside of me.

Two months later and I have had an incredibly smooth recovery. Throughout my short 10 days in hospital the incredible staff said time and again how I was gifted the perfect match and that my new liver was thriving. By all accounts the surgery wasn’t a straightforward one and to see me going from strength to strength every day while on the ward put a visible smile on everyone’s faces.

The work done by the liver transplant team in St Vincent’s is awe-inspiring. They work tirelessly to save lives, treating everyone with kindness and dignity without succumbing to the stigma that can follow those with diseases of the liver.

Where once I was quietly planning for my own death, I am now filled with hope of a full life. Where before I was becoming sicker and weaker, I am now getting healthier and stronger.
Where the silence of worry used to deafen our home, laughter has taken its place. The reality of this gift hasn’t even begun to sink in yet as I’m still in the very early days of recovery.

But the change to me, to Eoin, to our parents, families and friends that have watched us struggle for years is undeniable. We have been released from the tight grips of fear. Life will always have its uncertainties for us – how long will this health streak last? Will the illness return?

For now I am here, I am well and I am forever grateful to my donor. Their family will spend their first Christmas without them. As we gather around our table on Christmas Day, they will have an empty seat at theirs.

I only hope they can find comfort in the knowledge that their loved one has saved my life and possibly many others too. It is a cliché that I have tried and failed to find other words for, but organ donation is literally the gift of life.

This Christmas, I hope my story can encourage even one person to become an organ donor. It’s important to let your next of kin know, so please have that conversation with them. Don’t leave them guessing should they ever be in the position my donor’s family was in last October. Give the gift of life this Christmas and say yes to organ donation.
For more information and to request an organ donor card visit ika.ie.