FOR A FAMILY in Co Mayo, the decision to donate their mother’s organs after her death has been a “huge solace” throughout their grief.

Sisters Chloe and Nicole Grier, now aged 21 and 27, lost their mother ten years ago, but her organ donations saved at least five lives, including a young girl who received their mother’s heart.

Speaking to The Journal during Organ Donation Awareness Week, Chloe said she would encourage anyone who finds themselves in a similar position to her family to consider organ donation.

Chloe’s mum, Martina, had an organ donor card, and doctors asked the family if they would consider allowing her organs to be donated.

“After we got the news, our Dad sat us down and said, Look, Mum had an organ donor card and the doctors have asked me would we consider it as a family since she had one,” Chloe explained.

“We were all very much on board and we said yes straight away, really. That’s all we had to do, we just had to say yes, and then the lovely staff at the hospital took care of everything else for us.”

In the following weeks, their family started to receive anonymous cards and letters from Martina’s recipients.

“They were lovely letters and cards telling us all about how this was their second chance at life and how they had found themselves on the waiting list looking for an organ in the first place,” Chloe said.

“It was really lovely to hear all these people’s stories of how much such a simple decision for us had really changed their lives and given them a second chance.

They could go back to their hobbies, they could go back to living their life to a much more full extent.

“One of the cards and letters that we tend to get every year, even 10 years on now, is from the family of an eight-year-old girl who received our mum’s heart.

“We got to hear all about her story and how they found themselves in this situation of just being on the waiting list and not knowing would they get the call in time or what would happen next for them.

“Thankfully, they did get the call in time. Their daughter’s 18 years old now, 10 years on, able to spend those 10 years with her parents and everything, which is so wonderful.”

This week’s awareness campaign by the Irish Kidney Association is encouraging people to have conversations with their families about whether they would wish to be an organ donor.

Organ donor cards can be obtained by texting “donor” to 50050 or registering on the association’s website. Adding the code 115 to your driver’s licence also indicates you would like to donate your organs if the situation arose.

Chloe, who is a midwifery student, advised: “If anyone ever finds themselves in a similar kind of situation to ours, to definitely consider or look into the Irish Kidney Association or consider organ donation because definitely, it’s been a huge solace to all of our family throughout our grief.”

“It’s made something that is quite sad into something that is very positive and has really helped us to look at it in more of a positive light because we get to know that our Mum is living on through these people and we get to know that these people are thinking of her every day the same way that we would.”