​Inniskeen family raises €22,245 for Kidney Support Centre

An Inniskeen family whose lives have been transformed by kidney transplantation returned to the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) National Kidney Support Centre at Beaumont Hospital on 20th August to present a cheque for €22,245, raised through this year’s Inniskeen Annual Charity Walk.

​Paul Conlon, his son Mark and wife Patricia were joined at the presentation by Paul’s cousin, Fr. Noel Conlon, who founded the annual charity walk. The whole Conlon family came together to take part in the event in their local community of Inniskeen on 7th June, including Mark’s brother Alan.

The family had stayed at the National Kidney Support Centre during both of Mark’s kidney transplant journeys, making the Centre a particularly meaningful choice as the beneficiary of this year’s event.

Today, both Paul and Mark are enjoying good health, ten years after Paul donated a kidney to his son. Mark’s second transplant continues to thrive, and the 32-year-old lives close to his parents in nearby Carrickmacross.

The Inniskeen Charity Walk, held on 7th June, attracted more than 120 participants, and raised a total of €22,245. All proceeds will support the IKA’s National Kidney Support Centre, which has recently completed a major renovation project and has now reopened.

The family’s connection to the annual walk is particularly special, with Paul’s cousin, Fr. Noel Conlon, having founded the annual charity walk through the Fr. Noel Conlon Charitable Trust, which has benefited numerous charities over the years. The Conlon family was delighted when their nomination of the IKA was selected as the beneficiary of this year’s walk, in recognition of the support they received during Mark’s two kidney transplant journeys.

Mark received his first kidney transplant from a deceased donor when he was just seven years old. Fourteen years later, in 2016, when Mark was 22 and receiving dialysis, his father Paul donated a kidney to him in a successful living donor transplant at Beaumont Hospital.

During both transplant journeys, Patricia and the family stayed at the National Kidney Support Centre. Located on the grounds of Beaumont Hospital, the Centre first opened in 2000 and provides free accommodation and day facilities for kidney patients and their families travelling from across Ireland for treatment in Dublin.

Patricia said the family was delighted to give something back to a Centre that had provided them with such important support. “The Support Centre was a lifeline for our family on both occasions”, she shared. “When your loved ones are in hospital, having somewhere comfortable and supportive nearby makes an enormous difference. We are so grateful to the Irish Kidney Association for the support they gave us, and we are equally grateful to the local community who came out in such numbers to support the Inniskeen Charity Walk this year. Their generosity has helped us give something back to a Centre that meant so much to our family and will hopefully make a difference to other families in the future.

“We are also incredibly grateful for Mark’s health and for the gift of life he received through organ donation. His first kidney transplant gave him more than a decade of good health and the opportunity to enjoy a normal childhood and adolescence. We will always remember with gratitude the family of his first donor, and they are always in our thoughts. Without that extraordinary gift, Mark’s journey would have been very different.”

The newly renovated National Kidney Support Centre has now reopened and continues to provide a welcoming ‘home away from home’ for kidney patients and their families travelling to Dublin for renal care.

For more information about the Irish Kidney Association, organ donation and how to get an Organ Donor Card, including the digital donor card which can be saved to your mobile phone wallet, visit www.ika.ie/donorcard

To support the National Kidney Support Centre, visit www.supportkidneycentre.ie