Man who donates Kidney to brother runs New York City Marathon

Man who donates Kidney to brother runs New York City Marathon

By John Hogan

A CORBALLY man, who donated a kidney to his brother, didn't let losing one of his organs stop him from fulfilling his lifetime ambition of running the New York Marathon less than a year later.
Johnny Murnane completed the world's largest marathon only 11 months after the operation which had a life-changing effect on his younger brother.

"One of the reasons I did the marathon was to prove to myself that donating a kidney made no impact on my health. I'd done a few 10km runs before but never a marathon and my training times were actually better after the operation. It's obviously not something to be done lightly, but seeing Harry have a full life was worth every discomfort," said Johnny.

After suffering renal failure in 2002, Harry began Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis. This meant being connected to a dialysis machine for up to eight hours a day, five to six days a week.

"It was literally draining. I was fed up with the routine but I also have a heart condition which meant that I wasn't suitable to receive from a deceased donor. My mum, uncle and brother were all tested and Johnny was the one who came up as the best match," recalled Harry.

Experts say receiving a kidney from a living donor produces better results than using an organ from a deceased person but the rates of living kidney donation in Ireland and the UK remains low.

In January 2007, the Murnane brothers left their home in Shannonbanks, Corbally with their mother, Jeanne, for the West London Renal Transplant unit, the largest of its kind in Europe.

The operation was
carried out by Vassilios Papalois, consultant transplant surgeon, at the hospital. Jeanne Murnane still remembers the last comforting words Mr Papalois said to her before the operation on both her sons.

"The surgeon looked at me and said 'only wonderful people donate'. From now on, Johnny's middle name is 'wonderful'," said the proud mother.
Both operations went smoothly and three months later Harry went on his first foreign holiday since having kidney failure. When asked about the difference the transplant has made to their lives, Harry says without hesitation, "Normality. I can think and act spontaneously and that's very liberating."

Before taking off for the Big Apple to take part in the marathon, Johnny had decided he would like to finish the race in less than four hours and sure enough he crossed the finish line in Central Park with three hours, 57 minutes on the clock.

Last Updated: 18 April 2008 9:28 AM