Have you had 'the conversation'?

James Nolan and (inset) consultant surgeon Dilly Little.

If you're lucky, you don't know Dilly Little, consultant surgeon, because you're perfectly healthy, writes Brian Byrne. But you're lucky also if you are a kidney transplant candidate and you do know her, because she's one of just three dedicated transplant surgeons in this country.

She has spent her career working and learning how to help people with major kidney issues achieve a better quality of life. She is also one of those people who, along with Kilcullen's James Nolan, is constantly urging the rest of us to 'have the conversation' with our family and loved ones about organ donation.

That's a special theme this week, with organ donation being highlighted throughout the country and also at Punchestown on the 30th anniversary of the Charity Race which raises funds for the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund.

It was established by James Nolan, who is known by many of you (and now all of you) for having had the 'gift of life' transplanted kidney from his sister Catherine.

I interviewed Dilly Little a few weeks ago, at Beaumont Hospital during a brief break from her exceptionally busy working life. You can read the resulting article in tomorrow's Kildare Nationalist. It's clear that I was very impressed, though she insists she is not the story. But there are two sides to organ transplants. So she is at least part of the story, and an essential one.

Read my article, learn about the other side of kidney transplant. Then have that conversation …

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy