Kidney donation the gift of life for local family on the double!

The gift of kidney donation is life changing and one that the Mahon family from Tullamore understands only too well in two different instances.

Leona Mahon is mum of seven-year-old Sophie who received the gift of a kidney from her dad Hugh when she was just four-and-half years old.
This was a "living kidney" donation, but just earlier this year, Leona's dad Michael also received a kidney, this time from a deceased person.
"So we've experienced both sides of it and we want to raise awareness about organ donation and try to get people to talk to their families about their wishes regarding organ donation."
"Sophie will be turning eight this November, she is in first class in Scoil Mhuire in Tullamore. She goes horse riding and has just started swimming lessons," explains Leona, a former paramedic, who is now secretary of the Offaly IKA branch.
She explains that her daughter was born by emergency section and that's when doctors discovered her first born was in kidney failure.
"It came as a huge shock to us. Sophie began peritoneal dialysis when she was just seven days old," Leona explains. "Peritoneal dialysis meant Sophie could undergo dialysis at home. She was on peritoneal dialysis every night for 13 hours."
Overall, Sophie spent her first six months in hospital.
"It was a very hard time for us. The peritoneal dialysis at home was also very restrictive as we were tied to the house in a way - we had to be home at 4pm every day to start the dialysis at 6pm.
"And Sophie would be very sick with the dialysis, she was vomiting a lot, there were some nights you'd be up all night with her."
As well as the nightly dialysis, Sophie had to be tube fed, which meant multiple hospital appointments in Dublin as Sophie had other complications including a cardiac issues and mild cerebral palsy.
"They always talked to us in the hospital about a transplant, whether it was a living or deceased transplant," Leona continues. "She had to be big enough to take an adult kidney before she was suitable for a transplant and she finally went on the transplant list when she was three and half years old."
Doctors began testing on Sophie's dad Huge who turned out to be a match. Meanwhile, Leona was pregnant with the couple's second child Oisín.
"Leading up to the day of the transplant there was a lot of planning to be done. Hugh had to plan to be off work for six weeks, and we had to make sure we were financially sound  - the bills still had to be paid," she explains.
In the meantime, Oisin was born and was just six months old when the transplant went ahead.
"The operation took 11 hours in total and it did not go well at first. Sophie was in ICU for two weeks and in hospital for two long months. 
They kidney was working and then it stopped working. The doctors thought she had rejected it but thankfully, she hadn't, and eventually it all came right."
While Sophie was in Temple Street, dad Hugh was in Beaumont recovering, and it was a major worry for the family as a whole. But once Hugh was discharged he fought hard to get well and be by his daughter's side, and began taking it in turns with Leona to go up and down to Temple Street to be with Sophie.
"It really took the entire year for her to begin recovering again but eventually we could start to see the difference in her," continues Leona.
"One of the first things I noticed was the white of her eyes - they were so much clearer - and her skin too. Up until that point she had a yellow pallor and now you could see her rosy red cheeks."
Sophie has been doing really well ever since. While she still has to go up and down forb regular check-ups to Temple Street Hospital, she is a lot stronger, and is now walking and doing things other children can do, like attending school, swimming and horse riding.
"She will be on medication for the rest of her life but she is so much stronger," says Leona, who wants to raise awareness of the Offaly IKA and of becoming a donor.
"My dad also had a kidney transplant in June this year. He got a kidney from a deceased person. So we have seen both sides of it.
"I never really knew anything much about the Kidney Association but they were such a support to us when we were going through everything that I wanted to give something back.
The Offaly branch of the IKA meet once a month, every third Thursday, in the Tullamore Court Hotel and offers support to families.
"It's to let people know that they are not alone in this. People can feel very isolated when they are in and out of hospital for dialysis, your life can just revolved around that and hospital appointments and there's not much room for anything else. 
"I also want to say how important it is to talk to your family about organ donation. As I've said  - this family has experienced both sides of it, a living kidney donation and a deceased. To see what my dad went through. He was a year and a half on dialysis and the new kidney has made such a difference to him."
Leona also wants to thank the doctors and nurses who helped Sophie to ensure she got well, and to her former colleagues in the ambulance service who did a fundraising cycle for Sophie back in 2012.