'Not a day goes by I don't think about my donor family': says Thurles transplant patient Danielle Walsh

A Thurles woman who is waiting for a life saving kidney transplant for over two and a half years has said she refuses to give up hope and believes a match will one day be found.

Forty one year old Danielle Walsh from Mitchell Street was just a teenager when she was first diagnosed with kidney failure forcing the bubbly teen to temporarily halt her studies and endure tough rounds of dialysis three times a week in hospital in Dublin.

Growing up Danielle was a happy, active child, often spotted togged out on the local GAA pitch playing camogie or cheering on her beloved Tipp hurlers during games in Semple Stadium.

However by the time she reached her teens a spate of recurring kidney infections had left her in seriously ill health and at just 15 years old she was dealt a devastating diagnosis by doctors who confirmed she was at end stage renal failure.

“I was getting one kidney infection after another and I remember I was in the middle of studying for my Junior Cert and I had to be pulled out to go on dialysis. It was very tough at first,” she says of those terrifying initial few months.

In total she would go on to spend 17 months undergoing dialysis before being placed on the transplant waiting list.

READ MORE: Double transplant would greatly enhance life of Tipperary woman Triona Lyons

In 1995, by her seventeenth birthday, Danielle received the call she had been waiting for - a suitable kidney transplant had become available, her second chance had arrived.

The subsequent operation, performed by former Dublin football star Dr David Hickey, was a resounding success.

“It was a complete shock to my whole family and I suppose over time I learned to accept it but I had a great faith that someone up there was looking out for me and that things would come right,” Danielle explains, looking back.

As her health continued to improve, Danielle returned her focus to her education, eventually going on to study at the Clonmel campus of Tipperary Institute.

I am so proud of my parents and of everyone who has worked hard to raise Organ Donation Awareness. ❤️☘️ https://t.co/Witv7taA2h

— Orla Tinsley (@orlatinsley) March 26, 2019

However on June 23, 2016, some 21 years after receiving the “gift of life”, Danielle's world was shattered once more after her doctor informed her that her transplant was starting to reject.

“I was incredibly fortunate that my first kidney transplant gave me such a good quality of life for so long but it was still a shock and hard news to take,” she says.

“There's isn't a day goes by that I don't think about my donor family. The doctor told me that it came from a young woman but that's all I know.”

But despite the second knock back, Danielle’s outlook remains positive.

Her family once again rallied around and began researching donor options.

Unfortunately neither her parents, nor her brother Greg, were a suitable match however Danielle and her mother, Kit, have since entered into the UK paired exchange programme meaning that if a suitable living donor pair is found there, Danielle and her mother would undergo their operations in Coventry.

Because of a high antibody build up from her first transplant, Danielle requires an exact match, explaining that even a kidney with a 98 percent match rate would “fail straight away.”

In the meantime Danielle is pleased to be under the expert care of Dr. Conall O’Seaghdha and his team at Beaumont Hospital and remains hopeful that a donor is found.

Danielle also travels to Kilkenny three times a week to undergo dialysis treatment, each session lasting a maximum of four hours.

“I try not to dwell on things too much and I don't wake up thinking will today be the day I get the call. I live my life and when it (the kidney transplant) comes, it comes.

Meeting the other patients at dialysis is helpful because we can all talk about what we're going through. And the nurses there are simply fantastic, I can't praise them enough,” she adds.

Organ Donor Awareness Week is organised by the Irish Kidney Association and runs from Saturday, March 30 to April 6.

The focus of the week is to remind individuals to talk to their families about their organ donation wishes and keep the reminders of their decision 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.