Offaly native's late wife's donated organs helped three people

TULLAMORE native Noel Farrell's wife Celia, a retired nurse, passed away after a fall outside their Clonee home in August 2013 just hours before they were to go out for a meal to celebrate their 39th  wedding anniversary.

Noel, on knowing that Celia  had  a signed organ donor card for many years, honoured her wishes to be an organ donor. The organ donation helped three other people as her kidneys were transplanted into two people and another stranger received a liver transplant.  Two and a half years later, Celia’s cousin Michael Byrne from Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, underwent a kidney transplant in February 2016 following him having to receive dialysis treatment.

Noel treasures a gift he received from one of the transplant recipients, sent anonymously via the organ donor. The framed photo of silver birds was accompanied by a card which explained the birds represented the treasured freedom that the transplant had given the transplant recipient.

Noel, a retired accountant who grew up and attended school in Tullamore until 1970 explained, “we were both doing work around our house, a bungalow in Clonee in August 2013. I had finished mowing the lawn and was coming back towards the house when I found Celia lifeless on the ground. She had fallen off a ladder when she was almost finished clearing out a gutter and suffered a brain trauma. She was a retired nurse and liked to keep busy and active and always cleaned the gutters out once a year around August even though I had often asked her why she didn’t get someone in to do the job. After her fall an ambulance brought her to Blanchardstown Hospital but it was clear that she wasn’t going to recover. When medics asked me would I  consider organ donation I knew instantly that I had to say yes as that was her expressed wish and I knew she had always had an organ donor card. It’s a decision I don’t regret and although I miss her and think of her every day it brings comfort to know that I had honoured her wishes and as she had worked as a nurse all her life until her retirement, she would have wanted to help others through organ donation.

“Organ Donation continues to be very important for me. Recently I phoned the Irish Kidney Association and requested a box of organ donor cards to put in my local church around the time of Confirmations. Most of the box was emptied and I just have a few left.

“I have some great memories of Celia and we marked our 25th  anniversary with a trip to the West Coast of America.  Two years later for our 27th  anniversary we went to New York which is a trip I will never forget as we had just left our hotel and hopped onto a coach to see the twin towers when we had to make a detour as we were told there had been an incident at the towers. It was nine eleven,  a day I will never forget.”

Celia worked hard as a nurse all her life. She was part of a team that were responsible for getting the first automated decontamination unit in Cappagh Hospital.

Noel recalls his childhood growing up in Tullamore. "I have some great memories of my childhood living in Clonminch in Tullamore where I attended national and secondary school. I still keep in contact with some of my classmates from the Christian Brothers school there".

Noel is sharing his story in support of Organ Donor Awareness Week (23-30 April) which is organised by the Irish Kidney Association in association with Organ Donation Transplant Ireland.