One-hundred-and-seven children have received kidney transplants in Temple Street Children's Hospital over the last 13 years and the hospital is appealing to people to consider organ donation and to carry an organ donor card.

Temple street is the home of the National Paediatric Transplantation Programme and in the last three years alone, 34 children have received kidney transplants.

Kidneys come from both living and deceased donors. Typically, living donors are blood relatives, e.g. a parent or sibling.

Deceased donors are usually identified after brain stem death has occurred in one of the country's 37 ICUs. With brain stem death, there is no hope of recovery and the person is unable to breathe on their own. In such cases, the person's next of kin are asked for their consent to allow organ donation to take place. This decision lies with the next of kin even if the person had wanted to be an organ donor.

According to Temple Street consultant nephrologist, Dr Niamh Dolan, donating an organ ‘is the greatest possible act of generosity'.

"Temple Street continues to encourage people to carry an organ donor card and to discuss their wishes with family when all is well.

"Notwithstanding the sometimes tragic circumstances that can surround discussions about organ donation in an ICU, giving the gift of life is the greatest possible act of generosity and many families and individuals take considerable comfort in the knowledge that they, and their loved one, have transformed the lives of others for the better," she commented.

As well as running the National Paediatric Transplantation Service, Temple Street is also the National Paediatric Haemodialysis Centre, which means that children nationwide come to the hospital for dialysis while waiting for a kidney transplant.

"When a child's kidneys fail or when they are born without normal kidney function, it is devastating for them and kidney transplantation can be a means to regain a normal life without the highly demanding routine of dialysis," Dr Dolan noted.

Meanwhile, according to Denise Fitzgerald, chief executive of the Temple Street Foundation, the hospital is delivering ‘world-class care in challenging conditions', with many of its facilities ‘struggling to cope'.

It has been fundraising for a much-needed neurology and renal outpatients department for the last 18 months, which will cost €5 million. To support this appeal, click here

Organ donor cards can be requested from the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) by free texting 50050 or calling 1890 543 639. They are also available in local pharmacies and Citizens' Information Centres.