Laois transplant recipients attend 40th Annual Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving

A NUMBER of Laois residents were among the guests at the Irish Kidney Association 40th Annual Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving.

The service attracted a congregation of approximately 1,500 people from across Ireland and overseas to the Church of the Holy Child, Whitehall, Dublin.

The unique and poignant event honoured deceased organ donors and their families, while celebrating the renewed lives of transplant recipients.

Now in its 40th year, the Service has become a deeply meaningful annual gathering for donor families and organ transplant recipients, many of whom attend every year to reflect, remember, and give thanks.

This inclusive ceremony brought together celebrants from various faith traditions and non-religious worldviews, each united in their support for organ donation as the ultimate act of humanity. During the moving ceremony there were spontaneous rounds of applause at different times.

Among the participants who carried out roles at the Service were Gillian Curtis, a heart transplant recipient living in Portlaoise with her husband Nigel (and native of Athy) who took part in a procession.

Gillian’s diagnosis of cardiomyopathy in 2004 occurred at the same time as the tragic death of her 18-year-old younger brother Martin from sudden adult death syndrome.

After two false calls for a heart transplant, Gillian’s gift of life came in the summer of 2019 when she was aged 39 - her life was saved by on organ donor.

Newlywed Nicole Walsh (nee Grier), a native of Mayo, and now living in Portarlington, Co Laois, with her husband Kieran, read the first prayer of thanksgiving at the Service.

Nicole’s together with her sister and father made the selfless decision to donate her mother Martina’s organs when she passed away following a brain aneurysm in 2012.

The President, Michael D Higgins, patron to the Irish Kidney Association, wrote a letter of support.

In the President’s message he said: “On this 40th anniversary of the Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving, may I extend my support and thanksgiving for the great gift of organ donation, which has transformed and enriched so many lives, allowing new possibilities and new opportunities for recipients and their loved ones.” The poignant Service of Light was facilitated by members of Transplant Sport Ireland, who lit candles for the congregation, symbolising the enduring connection between organ donors and those whose lives they transformed.

The congregation was invited to place handwritten remembrance cards bearing the names of their loved ones into baskets at the altar. These cards will be incorporated in the Circle of Life National Organ Donor Commemorative Garden in Salthill, Galway, by the garden’s founders, Martina and Denis Goggin.

The Service was recorded by Kairos Communications for broadcast on RTÉ One, Radio 1 Extra and RTÉ Player on Sunday, 2nd November at 11am.

For more information visit www.ika.ie