PRESS RELEASE                                                                   22 December 2025

Father gets to spend Christmas Day with children thanks to kidney transplant

This Christmas will be a profoundly different one for a young family in Cork, as a 35-year-old father of two young children, is spending the festive season at home with his young family, for the first time in four years following a life-changing kidney transplant in August this year.

Dave Healy, originally from Blarney and now living in Carrigaline, Co Cork with his wife Sarah St. Leger (31), a native of Crosshaven, and their two children, aged four and two, spent more than two and a half years on attending dialysis treatment at Cork University Hospital (CUH). His treatment schedule required three haemodialysis sessions a week, each lasting three hours, all while continuing to work and parent as best he could.

“Dave was diagnosed four years ago with chronic kidney disease, just after we had our first baby. Dialysis kept him alive, but drained him,” Sarah said. “It sometimes felt like I was sole parenting. We were both doing our best, but between him working full time and dialysis treatment in hospital, he had almost no energy left. Our parents helped out whenever they could.”

Sarah explained, “The prospect of spending Christmas morning in hospital receiving dialysis treatment, away from the excitement of our children opening their presents and enjoying playing with them, had weighed heavily on Dave. But this year, everything has changed, and we look forward to being present all day together and enjoying Christmas dinner without Dave having to comply with renal diet restrictions.”

“In August, Dave received a call came unexpectedly from Beaumont Hospital asking him to make his way to the hospital. He received a donor kidney from a selfless deceased donor, a gift he describes as “nothing short of life changing.” The effects were immediate. His energy returned, his health stabilised, and the restrictions around diet and fluids that once dominated daily life were lifted.

“It feels like getting my life back,” Dave shared. “And getting to be fully present with my wife and children this Christmas morning it means more than I can put into words. I will be forever grateful to the donor and their family for giving us this chance. Dave added, “we even got to enjoy a family holiday abroad a few weeks ago. All this was made possible by my donor. It was nice to be able to leave a message of gratitude and read so on the IKA’s Christmas Tree of Hope  www.ika.ie/hope/ and read so many other moving  tributes left there by families touched by organ failure or organ donation.”

Dave and Sarah expressed their deep gratitude to the medical teams at CUH who cared for Dave throughout his long dialysis journey, the teams at Beaumont Hospital, as well as the staff at the IKA Munster Kidney Support Centre which is conveniently located just two hundred meters from the hospital. They also thanked the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) for providing free accommodation near Beaumont Hospital, allowing Sarah and the family to stay close by when the call for the transplant finally came and while he was recovering in hospital. The charity is providing interim arrangements for hotel accommodation for kidney patients and families, until its National Kidney Support Centre on the grounds of Beaumont Hospital reopens. The IKA’s National Kidney Support Centre is undergoing a major renovation project for which the Irish Kidney Association currently fundraising for in order for it to reopen in 2026 and has an fundraising platform  www.supportkidneycentre.ie where the public can make donations. People can also support the project by buying a ticket in its online raffle on www.idonate.ie/raffle/IKA2025

As families across Ireland gather for Christmas, Sarah and Dave hope their story encourages conversations about organ donation and the gift of life.

“Please talk about your wishes,” Sarah urged. “One family’s generosity, someone we have never met, gave our family – a husband, son, and father – his life back. Because of them, we have the prospect of spending a wonderful Christmas and a future full of hope.”

Over the holiday season, the Irish Kidney Association encourages families to take the opportunity to discuss organ donation and make sure they know each other’s wishes. For organ donor cards, including a digital version that can be saved in your phone wallet, visit: www.ika.ie/donorcard

-ENDS-

Gwen O’Donoghue, Irish Kidney Association mob 086 8241447 email gwen@ika.ie