County Galway native Paddy Browne, who donated part of his liver to his daughter Sadhbh, is encouraging everyone, and particularly organ recipients, to live their best life.
Sadhbh Browne was four years old when she received a partial liver transplant from her father, who is eHealth Director of Nursing at Saolta University Health Care Group.
Sadhbh and Paddy will now represent Ireland at the British Transplant Games for the first time, joining fellow athletes from Transplant Sport Ireland.
The four day sports competition will include heart, lung, liver, kidney, pancreas, bone marrow transplant recipients, kidney dialysis patients and live donors from all over Ireland, Australia and the UK.
Paddy explained that his daughter, who received the transplant in 2019, was born with a rare liver condition, and subsequently developed serious liver complications that required a liver transplant.
“Following the transplant, Sadhbh had a long but steady road to recovery and now, thankfully, she is living her best life and will demonstrate it when she represents Transplant Sport Ireland at the British Transplant Games in Coventry from 27-30 July,” he said.
“I am so proud of Sadhbh and how far she has come.”
This year, Transplant Sport Ireland has 26 transplanted adults, five transplanted underage athletes, and three living donors competing from all around the country making it the largest ever Irish team to compete at the games.
Transplant survivors, including children as young as five, can compete in more than 25 sports with many of them going on to compete at the World Transplant Games.
“Life is a precious gift and organ donation and transplantation offers inspiration to those who are newly transplanted or newly diagnosed with organ failure,” said Paddy.
“Organ donation saves lives. It’s important to have those conversations at home and carry your organ donor card, because God forbid if the unexpected happens, there’s no question as to what your wish was.”
