The chairman of the Leitrim branch of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) will this week (August 30th) travel to Germany to represent his country at the European Transplant and Dialysis Games.

But modest Paul Donohoe, who stresses that he is ‘not a typical athlete’, maintains his role at the games will to highlight the need for organ donation in this country.

The father of three, who lived in Drumreilly, Co Leitrim, for seven years, but now lives in Doogary, Co Cavan, was diagnosed with renal failure at 15 months when it was thought that he had no chance of survival.

“Thanks to the my mother’s persistence I was transferred to the Meath hospital in Dublin,” said Paul will compete for his country at ten pin bowling, darts and badminton in Germany at the games that begin on August 31. It was while Paul was living in Leitrim that he went on dialysis and underwent his transplant,  for which he is eternally grateful.

“I am now very happy to have three healthy children. I have good health and try to live life to the full,” said Paul’s who trains the U-10 GAA team in Carrigallen, where his children attend the local school.

The busy father of three has alos been enjoying his position as national chairman of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) for the last year and is halfway through his term. Last August, Paul travelled to Thailand to compete at international level for the first time ever at the World Transplant Games in Bangkok.

Last year’s World Games proved to Ireland’s most successful to date with the 23-strong squad taking home an unprecedented 39 medals.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it. I benefited from it personally and I felt that renal patients benefited from the amount of positive publicity our success generated,” said Paul.

“As chairman I feel that I would have a major role to play to try promote the need for organ donor awareness. We work hard to promote organ donation throughout the year.

“People respond well to organ donation in Ireland, we are quite a generous nation and the act of donating an organ is quite an altruistic, caring thing to do after your death. Over 80 per cent of Irish people think organ donation is a good idea.”

The IKA promote health and fitness through their sports programme, both during dialysis and after transplantation.

“The competitors taking part in the games range from those who are taking part purely from a social point of view to those who are fit, competitive athletes,” remarks Paul, stressing that the IKA encourages patients to take part in whatever they feel able to take on.

“We can’t all be 100m sprinters that is why there is a broad range of events on offer to suit all levels of fitness.”

Paul’s wife Adrienne and his three children, Luke, Grace and Adam will cheer him on from home when he departs for the games on August 30.

Log onto www.transplantteamireland.com to follow the team’s progress. For Organ Donor Cards freetext the word DONOR to 50050 or visit the Irish Kidney Association website www.ika.ie