Navan woman's part in annual service for organ donors

Pre-recorded inter-faith ceremony to be broadcast next Sunday

Thousands of organ donor families and grateful transplant recipients will tune in from at home and abroad to watch the Irish Kidney Association’s 36th Annual Service of Remembrance & Thanksgiving. The pre-recorded interfaith service will be broadcast on RTÉ News Channel and on RTÉ Player on Sunday 21st November (2.15pm) coinciding with the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and the month of All Saints.

Four of the eight donor families who participated in the filming of the ‘virtual’ service, which was recorded at Merrion Road Church in Dublin 4, remember their loved ones who became organ donors following fatal road traffic incidents.

It is the second year in a row for the event to be held virtually and pre-recorded by Kairos Communications, due to safety concerns around the pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, the annual event attracted a physical congregation of close to 2,000 people. At last year’s first ‘virtual’ service, 64,000 households nationwide tuned in to watch its first viewing on RTÉ and it was streamed in 24 other countries.

For many organ donor families this unique annual service has become an anniversary to remember their loved ones, and for transplant recipients, the opportunity to honour and give thanks for the wonderful ‘gift of life’ they have received.

The Irish Kidney Association is asking the public to actively participate in this years’ service, especially during the very symbolic Service of Light Ceremony, when it is hoped that in households the length and breadth of the country, and beyond, a candle will be lit in memory of deceased donors who gave the gift of life. This ceremony is led by two members of the successful Transplant Team Ireland sports team – Dubliners Harry Ward (team captain) from Baldoyle, who received a kidney transplant from a deceased donor fourteen years ago, and Sandra Doyle from Beaumont, who has received two lifesaving liver transplants, her first in 2003 and second in 2017.

The interdenominational Service, an occasion for both sadness and joy, includes clergy, a humanist celebrant, as well as organ transplant recipients, families of organ donors and members of the medical profession involved in organ donation and transplantation. Music and song by cantor Dr Sharon Lyons and the Pro-Nuova Music Group is interspersed between poignant symbolic processions and meaningful scripture, reflections and expressions of gratitude, selflessness, and faith in humanity.

The service includes contributions from the Fr Gareth Byrne on behalf of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell, as well as Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin & Glendalough Dr Michael Jackson. The service is facilitated by Parish Priest, Fr Fergus O’Connor with Chief Celebrant Fr Damian O’Reilly presiding.

The Book of Remembrance, a ‘Roll of Honour’, has been an integral part of the Service since its inception with the names of organ and tissue donors carefully inscribed by Annette Daly from Glenageary, Co Dublin for the past 36 years.

Another symbolic procession includes a large Organ Donor Card being carried to the altar by heart transplant recipient Aoife Farrell from Bray, Co Wicklow who has undergone two heart transplants ten years apart, the first when she was just 19 years old. Carrying the large Organ Donor Card with Aoife was Crystal Gail Spollen, native of Lucan, Dublin and now living in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, whose oldest daughter Neveah became an organ donor after she passed away just weeks before her tenth birthday.

Also filmed in an entry procession at the Remembrance & Thanksgiving Service was Patrick McGovern from Virginia, Co Cavan grateful for the liver transplant he received in 2020 during Covid. Reading at the Service was mother of two Elaine Kavanagh, from Newbridge, Co Kildare who underwent a lifesaving lung transplant in 2016.

Fr Finbarr Treacy, Producer at Kairos Communications, worked closely in planning the service with the Liturgy Committee which includes Irish Kidney Association (IKA) board members Valerie Brady, from Navan, Joan Gavan, from Donohill, Tipperary, Patricia May, from Brownshill, Carlow and Colin Mackenzie, IKA Honorary National Chairman, from Portmarnock, Dublin. They were assisted by Colin White, IKA National Advocacy & Projects Manager, also from Balbriggan, Dublin and husband to a kidney patient who has been undergoing dialysis treatment for over 20 years.

RTÉ News Channel can be found on Saorview #21, Sky Ireland #521, Virgin Media Ireland #200, Eir #517 or via the RTÉ News app or live and on catch-up on the RTÉ Player. Following the Service broadcast, it will be available on the Irish Kidney Association’s website www.ika.ie

Organ Donor Cards can be obtained by phoning the Irish Kidney Association on 01 6205306 or Free text the word DONOR to 50050. You can also visit the website www.ika.ie/get-a-donor-card or download a free ‘digital organ donor card’ APP to your phone.