Health: the gift of life

Looking back on that landmark month, July 2012, Brendan McArdle (50) – The Irish Field advertising and marketing manager and RTÉ sports commentator and reporter – is reflective, and emotional.

“My fiancée, Sarah, drove me to Beaumont Hospital the day before the operation, but at 9.30pm that night, the door opened and who was it, only my mum standing there. She had driven all the way from Monaghan by herself, just to make sure we were OK.

“Thinking back, it probably was a very emotional time for her. It makes me emotional now thinking of it, for her to see me in one hospital room and Colin in another.

“That’s a memory that lasts for me, 12 years on.”

At 7.30am the following morning, Monday, 2 July, Brendan was taken down to theatre first, passing Colin’s room. “We gave each other the thumbs up and we said ‘see you after’. That was it,” he says.

The operation was vital for Colin, as he had been on dialysis due to kidney disease for three years prior.

“You have to know someone in this situation to realise the impact, when their kidneys are not filtering their blood properly,” Brendan says.

“It’s three days a week on dialysis, six hours out of your day, you’re tired, yellow in colour, you’ve no energy – it’s pretty rough.”

When the family was told about the Live Kidney Donor Programme run by Beaumont Hospital, all siblings were tested to see if they were a match.

You have to know someone in this situation to realise the impact, when their kidneys are not filtering their blood properly

“We were all tested, one sister and one brother, and while my sister was most ready to do it, I was the only one that matched,” he says.

“To be honest, I wasn’t jumping up and down at the thought of the operation, but I knew it was Colin’s only option. If that hadn’t been the case, I’m not quite sure where the road for him would have led.

"He was on dialysis and on the transplant list for three years, but no kidney had come available through the donor programme. He was getting on with the dialysis, but he needed a transplant.”

While Brendan had worries, he went through all the tests, including the psychological one. Within six weeks, the operation was done.

“All I wanted was to be back working well enough to cover the Dublin Horse Show,” he says.

“It was a tough time, and Sarah was massively supportive but it was difficult for her too. I mean I walked out the door in full health but any surgery is a risk and there could have been complications. Thankfully, all went well. I had a good recovery, as did my brother.”

Check-ups

So how has Brendan been since?

“For me it has been 100%, I have regular check-ups in Beaumont, I am working hard, I haven’t changed my lifestyle a lot.

"I ride two or three horses a day, but would like to be a bit fitter and lose a bit of weight, but I enjoy life and I have a very sociable job. It’s been more challenging for Colin recently, but he is doing well again.”

While Brendan does have a concern about how his health will be as he gets older, he doesn’t think about it too much.

“I’m tested regularly and all is OK. You can live well on one kidney, so hopefully, I’ll have a long life.”

He would encourage people to donate via this live donor programme if they can.

One kidney

“At the end of the day, if you’re healthy and well, you can survive on one kidney and the team at Beaumont is very good. If there is anything wrong I can contact them straight away, so that’s a good service.”

One thing that he found very helpful before the operation was speaking with another man who had donated a kidney to a family member.

“I was 38 at the time,” he says, “and I was thinking, how will the body cope? Will it have any impact? So it was good to talk to someone.”

Following this chat, he felt reassured about things like pain relief. The catheter was the only thing that was giving him some concern, but it turned out to be okay.

“That wasn’t comfortable, but once it was out, I was all right,” he says.

Brendan remembers one particular incident fondly from the days after the operation.

“A neighbour came in to visit. He was brilliant. I wasn’t that well two days after the operation, but he came in the following day, the Thursday, and brought in a Magnum ice cream. I thought to myself ‘I don’t want one’, but I ate it anyway and I never looked back, so there must be some truth in that belief about ice cream pepping you up.”

The public doesn’t know enough about kidney disease, he believes.

“There is an ignorance around kidney problems, what that actually means for you. Your body is working, but your kidneys are not cleaning your system the way they are meant to. Basically, the filter is not working.”

Colin McArdle (48) is an Aberdeen Angus breeder on the home farm in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan. Known for being a man of fewer words than his brother, he has a very philosophical attitude to all that’s happened.

“Lucky enough it all went well, there were no problems. I go up every three months for check-ups and I’m getting on OK,” he says. That said, he remembers a separate health challenge three years ago, in December 2021.

“I had pain in my abdomen and my appendix was taken out,” he says, “but it turned out in the test results that I had lymphoma.”

Lymphoma is cancer of the lymphatic system, where lymphoma cells grow in lymph glands (nodes), causing glands to swell.

“I had to go on five rounds of treatment for the cancer, but it’s sorted out now. That’s the gist of it,” he says.

He admits that it was a worrying time and says that doctors don’t know what caused it.

“It could have been a rare thing related to some of the (anti-rejection) tablets I was on. They protect your kidney, but maybe could do harm, but they weren’t too sure. Anyway, I’m doing well since.”

Rearing Aberdeen Angus cattle is his main interest, he says. “Mostly I do pedigree Angus sucklers, I rear Angus bulls and sell them to the dairy farmers.”

His attitude to all that’s happened to him is inspiring.

I always looked at it when I went up to hospital and I still look at it now, there’s worse off than me. I was lucky, I was sick different times, but you just have to go on with it and that’s it

“When I think of it, it’s like everything else, I was told I needed dialysis and that I’d get a kidney, so you just go on and do the dialysis and you get out the door and forget about it until you have to go back again a few days later,” he says.

“I always looked at it when I went up to hospital and I still look at it now, there’s worse off than me. You go into Beaumont and you see different people and they are a lot worse off. I was lucky, I was sick different times, but you just have to go on with it and that’s it.”

Colin is married to Joanna and they have two children, Patrick (8) and seven-month-old Clare.

“I take the anti-rejection meds morning and night, and touch wood all is going all right,” he says.

Colin didn’t have any kidney trouble until 2002, when concern about his eyesight brought him to an optician. She referred him to his GP.

“I was sent straight to hospital because my blood pressure was sky high,” he says.

Referral to Beaumont Hospital followed and kidney disease was then diagnosed. In 2008, he was put on dialysis, as his condition deteriorated quicker than expected, and in 2009 he was put on the transplant waiting list.

This meant waiting for the phone call that would mean the life-transforming operation would happen thanks to an unknown donor. However, that phone call never came. Another option was possible, however – the live donor programme, which resulted in him receiving a kidney from his brother.

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