{"id":459765,"date":"2026-05-21T08:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459765\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:33:09","slug":"buncrana-brothers-lifesaving-kidney-donation-celebrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459765\/","title":{"rendered":"Buncrana brothers’ lifesaving kidney donation celebrated"},"content":{"rendered":"

One brother’s lifesaving kidney donation to his sibling has been celebrated by their family as part of the Irish Kidney Association’s Organ Donor Awareness Week.<\/p>\n

Last August, 39-year-old Buncrana man Gavin Doherty underwent a kidney donation surgery in Belfast – with the remarkable plan to then have the kidney transferred to his brother Eugene in London the same day.<\/p>\n

The transplant procedure began at the Belfast City Hospital at 7am, where Gavin’s kidney was successfully removed and prepared for the transplant.<\/p>\n

It was then flown across the Irish Sea to the Hammersmith Hospital in London where an expert medical team taking care of Eugene then carried out the life-saving procedure.<\/p>\n

Within 12 hours the transplant was completed, and a new chapter of life began for Eugene.<\/p>\n

After 12 weeks off work recovering from the transplant procedure and months of recovery, Gavin was then also able to return to his fully active lifestyle.<\/p>\n

For the family it also carried poignant significance, as their mother Patricia Doherty (n\u00e9e Gillespie) had also received a donor transplant herself 18 years earlier.<\/p>\n

That transplant had given the family many more years together as a unit, and now two decades later, Eugene would receive that same gift.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe medical staff, from the very beginning, were amazing,\u201d Gavin said recalling the medical professionals who ensured both he and Eugene were taken care of.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single one of them made the whole process calm and reassuring. We will forever be grateful for all they have done for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One brother’s lifesaving kidney donation to his sibling has been celebrated by their family as part of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-459765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}