 It's about how we can all play our part in supporting organ donation for transplantation by making sure that our families aren't left in any doubt about our wishes around organ donation and of course it's a gift of a second chance of life for many and this year there's been a record number of transplants and also I see in figures that at any one time here in Ireland there are between 550 and 600 people active on waiting lists for organ transplants. Well there's one couple who have come through it and they're a living, breathing and smiling example of how it can change a life and how you can come out the other side and lead a normal life. There's Helena Madden Campbell and her husband Hugh from Glentys and they've joined us now in the studio to tell their story and very briefly here's a spoiler that Helen actually donated her kidney to Hugh and effectively saved his life so anyhow you're both welcome to the studio. Thanks for coming in. So let's start with you Hugh. I know you said oh no ask me the most of the question so I will start with you but you were you were we're going back now what? 2011. You were flying fit. Yes. I'm doing coaching had you stopped? No I was still playing. Oh you're still playing? Still playing the time yeah. Right. Flying fit and what happened then? How did you first find out there was something wrong? Can I start with a sore head? I went and the doctor was paying between me two days just and it was blood pressure just through the roof. Right. And then they rushed me up to let the kidney and then from there on just. What happened pretty quickly? It happened. Yeah it was coming up to Christmas I suppose and Hugh he was plastering at the time and he was quiet coming up to Christmas like a lot of people isn't getting their houses plastered like the week before Christmas so he was at home with the kids and I was working and and his sister was babysitting for us that time I was a nurse and at the time and his sister was babysitting for us but she was off then doing her bits because he was home and she didn't mind having a bit of time off right and I just said he'd be complaining he didn't look well and he had a flu and then he was complaining to headaches and I just said oh you know what you're not used to being at home with the kids like because they were they were small that's what the headaches about yeah I said that's what it is you're just not used to having kids and he's like right enough right enough and I think it went on for about three weeks and then I went off to work one morning and he said I might go into the GP today and I said well phone them and let me know how you get on and then I hadn't heard from about three o'clock in the afternoon so I phoned him and he said I'm just up here at the hospital and I said what are you doing up there he said oh just the doctor sent me up but it's grand it's fine and I said right I'll pop in after work so I went down to reception in the hospital and I said I'm looking for Hugh Campbell and he was sent up from the doctors and she looked through her notes and she said oh he's up in cardiac ICU and I said no wrong Hugh Campbell like mine only came in because he has the flu yeah and she goes no no said what's the date of birth and all that information and she said no no that's him that's where he is so I hadn't a clue what was going on to that stage where I was met by a team of doctors and at the door who was telling me was kind of going on with him and that he had been in the GP and the blood pressure was 100 no 238 over 186 and they said they hadn't never seen anybody walk through the door with that blood pressure and of course as a nurse my head is going like what the heck is going on here like I've never seen anybody walking around with that right with that blood pressure so where did it go from there then um did you have to you had straight away did you have to go on dialysis or how did it work no no the kind of there's on a hyper test to find out what was actually causing it first yes and through the end I found out it was getting it's the workout they're only working at 22 percent at that stage all right both getting it's just total 22 percent but I was actually dead all together another one was just 22 percent right so it was panic stations panic stations to get the blood pressure on the control yes and I suppose it kind of went from there then so that your thrust then into a world kind of that you don't know much about it's kind of a club that you don't know anything about until you're you're thrown into it it's probably a fast learning curve huge learning curve yeah so I suppose at that stage it was stable enough that 20 you don't need to be on dialysis so they said all things could improve maybe it's just something they didn't know what was causing it at the time or why or this was kind of the early days um so what was just recurrent weekly appointments with different specialists and that around his kidneys and then things was okay they were stable at 22 percent and that went on for about two years because we we said oh well what did they said well what do you want to do is it hold in your back and I said yeah it is like god I'd love to we wanted another child and we had two little ones at the time and we said god we wanted three or four and they said oh well things are steady it could stay like this forever it's well controlled it's well managed so off we went and we had another baby in in September 2013 and then in October he had his his regular quarterly appointment and things were starting to go downhill so we have this this two month old baby and we were told that things would be fine and we're sitting up in the hospital and they're saying right it's down now at 18 we'll do bloods again now next month in November and hopefully it won't go down anymore and I think once it gets below 10 you need to start dialysis so that was grand he went for his bloods in November and things seemed okay or so we thought and then January we went shopping the the little fellow Jacob was getting christened and we went shopping just the last minute bits and pieces that you would kind of the friday before the christening and my family was all coming in from the states and we got a phone call we were in in let her can you really tell park shoppin and got a phone call and he didn't answer it because he didn't know the number and I answered mine then because it was gail who was the renal nurse up in the hospital and I said oh geezers that must be gail trying to get you so gail gail rang and she said um we're yeah and I said oh we're out shopping and she goes is he himself with you and I said he is and she goes what does he look like and I said all he's had standing here next to me he looks grand looks like my husband and she said god well I don't want to alarm yeah but the bloods is back there since before christmas and she goes it's not good she goes there's less than three percent and you need to get up to the hospital as soon as you scan he needs to start dialysis tonight and then that was kind of the start of the really really serious the really serious part then um so then you went on dialysis and how long before you the transplant where you on dialysis two years two years yeah and it just totally messes with your life everything has to revolve around dialysis yeah well it was what 34 and a half hours three times a week hooked up the machine that's right and the travel in and out so that means you couldn't work it means that you're at home looking after nice three small kids yeah yeah so things was things was tight it was and it was like being the only way to do it is being on a hamster whale so every morning you wake up and it's the same over again so the days he was going to dialysis it was grand because he was I suppose not even normality but he had a routine them days but the other days then the dialysis sometimes affect you and you're really sick so sometimes he'd come home from dialysis and he'd be fine other days he'd have to go straight to bed and wouldn't be able to get out of bed until the following day when he'd be back on dialysis again and and you have to be very careful with your diet too yeah anything wait what what do you have to so if you want vegetables or potatoes they need to be triple boiled and you can't add salt or butter to them so you're boiling everything out of them out of them if you wanted meat it had to be really it had to be it couldn't be anything red because that has extra proteins in it so it had to be pork or chicken and fish was a no no as well because they're trying to so the dialysis cleans all the toxins out of your blood from everything you eat so I suppose you're trying to limit the toxins going into you because it's less for them to have to take out of you um so just diet was really really bland and he couldn't have any fluids either so I think he was allowed three mil fluids per day so no tea no water so he'd nearly feel bad in the morning drinking your cup of tea in front of him I remember Evolming Fadney used to work here telling us some stories he was on dialysis there you go and she's telling us some of her stories oh my god and I yeah we couldn't go anywhere either because it's revolved around his dialysis so that means there was no holidays there was no no plan and anything no weekends away with the kids there was no he had to watch out for infections as well so we couldn't go to the swimming pool we couldn't go to anywhere crowded we couldn't go to the cinema um just because he was at higher risk for infection as well what's that and all the while you would have been on the waiting list for a donor kidney no it probably took probably took six months to nine months to get on the list yeah you have to do your heart test and you have to do a heba test to get on last actually right yeah just to make sure you're fit and healthy you can hold that whole new kidney and Alina what stage did you say listen you know what we've had enough of this yeah can can my kidney be used yeah so it was coming up to Jacob's first birthday and I was in the kitchen one morning and he had just left and the kids was all kind of complaining that daddy couldn't go to max the eldest fellow was really into football and he had had a bad weekend because his dad he couldn't go to the football match on the sunday um and judy was really really involved with the kids kind of up until having to go to dialysis three days a week um and max was kind of crying and sophie was a bit nyarky and I sat there and I was like gee because what are we going to do with this like they were going back to school and I just got it in my head then I said if we don't have a kidney this time next year I'm going to donate one because I can't keep going like this it's no life you know it was no life at all for anybody not for himself not for us not for the kids um and I just decided then so kind of the year went on and I didn't think about it that much kind of and thank you're always hoping every time the phone rings and I just actually when you're like you have bags packed we had bags packed in both cars we had but you wear a match you it was okay uh we didn't know at that stage if we were a match oh you didn't know so I just said you know what I'm gonna look to do it now if when when Jacob turns if he doesn't have a kidney by the time Jacob's too and I think I didn't even wait till Jacob turned to it was the following July okay when I just thought this is going nowhere like we're not getting anywhere and there was another fella in Glentis and he was waiting for a kidney as well and I just thought there's so many people and when you go up to the appointments you meet so many people waiting and no organs coming through um and it's just it's not even that you have to be a similar I suppose when you're getting a cadaver organ or a deceased stoner organ you don't it's not even just a match blood type you have to have so many similarities with that person so size wise age wise has to be a perfect match it has to be really really perfect for that okay um and I just thought thank god this is like when in the lotto like if like it's going to be really hard like when in the lotto probably be easier than trying to get a kidney but first would it would it be would it be for commonplace for a spouse to be a good match I knew that as well and I just said you know what I'm gonna give it a go so I and that's what happened I phoned up the transplant coordinator in Beaumont and just a normal Tuesday afternoon I said hi I want to donate somebody a kidney and they said okay hold on a minute and they got me somebody and they're probably thinking too much and I they said okay who do you want to donate a kidney to and I said my husband and she said oh god you know I don't really want to disappoint you but that normally doesn't work out right and I said oh right but can we can we try and she said sure can you come up um can you come up to Beaumont um next week or the following week and we'll get the blood zone all done and I said no I can't I said I haven't even told him that I'm going to donate a kidney I said no three little kids and he's on dialysis I said I just is there any way you could take that could you send me the the tubes and get the the blood taken down the GP yeah and she said you haven't told him and I said no because if I tell him he's going to say no straight away um so she agreed then reluctantly I would say after my pestering to post down a box of blood a blood kit just just to find out just to find out if we're even compatible because you can build up antibodies against your spouse over the years and how long did that take then to find out uh it was about six weeks all right so the bloods went away and six weeks later she phoned me back and she said I have great news for you you're a blood match and I said brilliant so uh when did you tell himself then probably the following day when he came home and I said what was the reaction well the start of probably didn't take it was a great idea no he was like adamant absolutely yeah so he was adamant to know when I was like listen I said normal enough reaction and I was just on to him and on to him I said listen they're going to do all these tests and they literally put you through the ring or a testing up in Beaumont so you get an appointment after your bloods come back you get an appointment to go up to Beaumont for the day you check in at 8 a.m. and you're not out till five and they give you every blood test and scan and ultrasound that is possibly imaginable known to man to make sure that you are as healthy as you can possibly be to what stands at heart surgery you passed them all I passed them all um and then I suppose after that then I was like listen I passed them all like so there's nothing there's nothing holding us back and I suppose and it was once he agreed reluctantly it was into full gear trying to organize I suppose life for the transplant yeah and then working around well we're both going to be at action for so long and you know you have to call the family yeah so it was but how did you feel I'm coming up closer to the surgery because you're thinking you know everything's healthy now and yeah well you have to do another blood test so coming up to it then so a few weeks before you have to do another blood test to make sure that there's still no antibodies there all right so that was kind of nerve wracking because I'm like god we've gone through all this everybody's planned now has their wee jobs to do to help with the kids and that like imagine if it doesn't work yeah so that once we got through that one then it was great and then it comes two weeks and it's kind of like I suppose a night before is a bit nerve wracking like I was really confident going into it I would say you probably weren't just confident but I was really confident until like literally you're sitting in that room the night before and he's moved over to his section of the ward and I'm on mine and I remember thinking it's kind of like the night if you play sport you would know the feeling you get before a really big match yeah must be a lot of apprehension hi you're nervous you're apprehensive we weren't we weren't I was in the different side because it was all sterilized and the receivers and I was on the other side was kind of to kind of their north station in the middle you weren't together well we weren't together up until about 11 o'clock and you had to go on dialysis he had to go on his final dialysis thing then right so anyhow the operation the transplantation was done and what wasn't an immediate was an immediate success or were you know there was kind of touch and go for a while so I got out of the hospital I suppose day five he was kept in for nearly 20 days at that stage just I suppose there was a few bits and pieces that they weren't happy with and I mean they are amazing up there and if you ever go up to st. Damien's ward amazing miracle workers the doctors and nurses up there and they are 110 percent happy with you before they're sending you away so the start there was just a few wee bits in his creatinine which is one of the proteins that they test for in your blood to judge your kidney function wasn't coming down as they would have wanted it to again he used to hear a lot about that so that wasn't coming down as quickly as they wanted and then they were worried then that there was a problem with the kidney so we had to go back in and get a biopsy done then so it was kind of touch and go for for a little while probably the first couple the first probably eight or nine weeks we kind of worked a hundred percent sure I was up once a week for I would say for the first eight weeks yeah three or four months I was up once a week yeah once a week for a checkup and then kind of there was a few times that we were kept kind of so your phone and home being like can somebody can you have the kids can you keep them overnight because he has to get a biopsy or he he got bk virus and which is a virus you can get in the transplanted organ all right and that can be really disastrous I suppose it can destroy the organ but they luckily they are so good at watching you and looking after you that they caught it more or less immediately so you were put through the middle right but yeah but here but you came through it I came through obviously yeah and let's fast forward now many years later what year was that that was 2016 16 so here we are and you're both sitting here I'm both of you healthy yeah absolutely life back to normal 100% pretty much yeah kids doing great brilliant max I say he's just made his debut for the minors yeah absolutely and you have a girl who plays for dunagall 14 years yeah and how's Oscar dude oh jake up jake i'm sorry jake up the youngest fellow he's brilliant he's into everything he's he's nine so he's kind of into the gay licking until soccer nine coming on 16 yeah yeah so he's a really big supporter of the two bigger ones because he played for dunagall so he wants to do the same so great example well you know you're you're living proof that it can work and that I suppose maybe the message might be that it's not as daunting as you as you think it is as you perceive it to be as you said earlier all fair if you can do it anybody yeah if I can if I can do it literally anybody is able to do it it was just the idea in my head and I phone Beaumont and they literally laid out all the plans everything that was laid out was laid out by them and I was just given days and times to turn up and they made it so easy from word go to do it all and they're so positive and this supports even that they offer year-round it you know it just I suppose if you're it changes somebody's life that's what my whole thing around it is is that he literally got and I didn't do it to give him back his life I did it selfishly so that all of our lives could be back to normal but you know if you're thinking of doing it or if you have a family member or a loved one or somebody who's waiting a while on an organ and you see them and they're telling you everything is fine it's not it's different behind closed doors when you're at home things isn't okay and if you can do it and you want to do it phone up Beaumont and ask them they'll give you as much information as you want and if it turns out you don't want to do it they'll not put any pressure on you to do it but you know it's an easy easy thing to do and I think recovery time for me was about eight weeks and I was back to normal so you obviously recovered a lot quicker but longer for you Q but now looking back best thing ever yeah well I really did your life back yeah like it just turns the person who receives the organ it transforms it gives them their life back because when you're on dialysis your life isn't your own it's up to the hospital ward schedule your dialysis every second day you know yeah and our heart and our heart because active people that are on dialysis that are up and down to the hospital waiting for every phone call every time the phone rings a bit of hope that you have and then it goes when it's not the the hospital looking for you so I just think if anybody is feeling that they want to do it or even to have a chat you know about your wishes if you pass you know or have a like we would talk to our kids about it all the time just to get it into their head you know the two older ones are 14 and 16 to make sure that someday they want to be organ donors and whether it be living donor or deceased owner you know to just have that chat with them and if you plant the seed early in their heads you know it's easier to get the ideas around it's easier to make around it to make the decision yeah more form decision okay Irish Kidney Association if you want to check out their website it's aka.ie uh Alina and Q's great to see you're looking so fit and well and uh and thanks for coming in for coming in for a chat. Thanks a lot.