LEXI MURPHY IS just a normal six-year-old girl.
She attends school, goes to ballet classes and Irish dancing and last week she went to see her favourite group Little Mix perform at the 3 Arena.
But the difference between Lexi and other girls her age is that she needs a new liver and kidney.
This is because when she was just three weeks old Lexi was diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening condition.
She suffers from polycystic kidney disease – which also affects her liver.
She was put on the liver and kidney transplant list on 1 December 2015. But since then she has had to be suspended from it on six occasions when she became too ill and had to be hospitalised.
“In the blink of an eye Lexi can become really sick but she just gets on with it and hardly ever complains even when she receives her nightly injections,” said her mother Kim.
In the past two years Lexi’s hospital stays have been more frequent and for longer durations as her health deteriorates.
To help support the family, Kim’s parents Mary and Denis O’Sullivan sold their family home in Mallow, Co Cork and moved to be near Lexi and the family in Dunhill, Co Waterford.
This is to ensure that they can be on hand to mind Lexi’s siblings when she has to go for her operation.
When a suitable donor becomes available, Lexi will have to travel to Birmingham to have the combined transplant operation – as procedures like this aren’t carried out in Ireland.
Lexi’s mother is calling on people to become organ donors so that they could be able to support those in need after the die.
“One of the most difficult things for myself and my husband to come to terms with is that we are entirely reliant on family somewhere to make the selfless decision to donate organs at a time of huge grief,” said Kim.
But out of this grief they will give life back to Lexi and other children like her who are waiting for life saving organ transplants.
The Irish Kidney Association are highlighting Lexi’s case in a bid to get more people to sign up as organ donors.
Around 550 people in Ireland are awaiting heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas transplants. 250 transplants in total were carried out in 2015 across Beaumont, Mater and St Vincent’s hospitals.
Organ donor cards can be obtained through the Irish Kidney Association. Freetext the word DONOR to 50050. For more info visit http://www.ika.ie/
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