Saturday, April 1, 2017
Serving Cork for 120 years
Temperatures up, but sow with care
Olive Ryan’s gardening column: Page 23
Edition No: 36484
Club Zone
16-page guide to this week’s TV
Focus on Mayfield Conversation Circle: P10 & 11
Donate organs plea GALA SIMON BALL
Aidan O’Shea, VoxPro, and Hilary O’Shea, RDJ, at the Cork Simon Annual Fundraising Ball in Fota Island Resort last night. Picture: Darragh Kane
WEATHER TONIGHT L: 3ºC
Partly cloudy
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■ Mum of lucky transplant girl calls for donors
Con O’Riordan Obituary Page 15
THE MOTHER of a young girl who underwent a lifesaving liver and double-kidney transplant has called on more people to carry organ donor cards. Kim Murphy, from Mallow, described organ donation as “the last selfless act” any person could do. Speaking as Organ Donation Awareness Week begins, the mother urged people to discuss their wishes with their families, should the worst happen. “Our daughter, Lexi, was born with polycistic kidney disease,” she said. “We always knew that a transplant was on the cards, we just didn’t know when it would be.” For her first four years, Lexi was relatively well. But, in the summer of 2014, her condition deteriorated. “She got much worse, spending about a week in hospital every month, with infections. In September, 2015, the doctors decided
Finding true love in Ireland!
Wedding of the week
Lexi Murphy, age 7, who received a liver and double-kidney transplant last November, with her parents, Kim and Declan, at the launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week. It runs from April 1-8. Picture: Conor McCabe Photography ■ Audrey Ellard Walsh to take out one of her kidneys to get her ready for the process of transplantation,” said Kim. “In December that year, we travelled to Birmingham to begin assessments. She was put on the list, but suspended 13 times, be-
cause she was so sick that she wouldn’t have been well enough to travel.” Desperate for a solution, Lexi’s dad, Declan, underwent testing to see if he could donate a piece of his liver. ■ Continued on Page 4.
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