A Co Fermanagh man who has been on a waiting list for a new kidney for the last two years has said new organ donation laws in Northern Ireland would be a ‘game changer’ for him.
The lack of a Stormont Executive had held up the passage of new opt-out legislation, with the Assembly recalled last week in a bid to have the new law approved following a campaign from the family of six-year-old Belfast boy Daithi MacGabhann.
An intervention by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris will see Daithi’s Law passed via legislation in Westminster.
READ MORE: Daithi's Law and Stormont election delay set to go through Commons
Ardess man Jim Muldoon, 57, has been on dialysis for the last two years and says that a new kidney would completely transform his life.
“A few years ago I noticed some lower back pain and just thought it was muscular, but after some blood tests they discovered I was in the early stages of renal failure,” Jim told Belfast Live.
“Gradually over the next few years it got worse and worse, to the point where I needed dialysis.
“I’ve been on a transplant waiting list for the last two years, the average waiting time is between three to five years.
“This new law will be an absolute game changer for people like myself, it’s going to change so many lives.
“They estimate that with these new changes it will cut that waiting time in half, potentially been two and two and a half years.
“It’s going to make an almighty difference, it’s going to give people their lives back. It’s going to give people their family members back.”
The Fermanagh man previously worked as a local bus driver but was forced to give up his job after he became ill, and says those who contributed to the delay of the new legislation should be ‘ashamed’.
“I haven’t worked in a few years now, and even the fact of getting a transplant and getting back to work so that I’m contributing would help me with my self worth. It’s tough, it’s not the most pleasant thing to go through,” he added.
“Even though the renal dialysis is keeping me alive as such, it’s quite taxing on the body and you just be totally drained afterwards.
“You have very little energy or strength and just be so fatigued all the time. My life at the moment just revolved around hospitals.
“Even the amount of money that will be saved will be a game changer, here in Omagh there are 60 patients. One person on dialysis costs about £12,000 a week, so multiply that by the amount of people here and then across the whole country as well.
“It should have been here a long time ago and those that have held it up should be ashamed of themselves. People’s lives are at risk and have been lost due to this.”
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