Organ donation: ‘After a lifetime of restriction, I can eat what I like, I’m drinking coffee for the first time ever, and I can have glass of wine’
Altruistic organ donation is a profound way to save lives and provide recipients with a joy and sense of ease they never knew was possible, as Mary Adamson, who received a life-saving kidney transplant, shares
Kidney transplant recipient urges everyone to consider organ donation
Mary Adamson has been on dialysis for almost half her life: 25 out of 59 years. The primary school teacher and mother of two from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, was first diagnosed with kidney disease at the age of just 14, after suffering prolonged bouts of illness with a high fever, headaches and vomiting.
When she developed a severe pain in her chest aged 16, she was rushed to hospital. “My kidneys were found to be literally at end stage — they were very bad,” she explains. “I weighed about five stone at the time. I was really very ill.”
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