Family celebrates medical milestone

Ruth Wright, who is the daughter of Mervyn Moorehead from Limavady Road in the City, recalls how she became so ill that her condition became life-threatening just prior to the transplant operation, and she remembers how she was wracked with pain and muscle spasms.

What is apparent from her story is that without the transplant she would have been tied to a dialysis machine, and her life would almost certainly have been cut short.

“Dad did this for me and I know I was on my way out otherwise. I have a tremendously supportive family and a wonderful mother and father, and I would encourage people to carry donor cards. They can save lives,” she said.

It is a message that her caring parents have also backed. Ruth’s father, Mervyn whose family ‘home’ is Glenard, just off Limavady Road, said he had no hesitation in saving his seriously ill daughter 35 years ago and would do it again. His selfless act ensured he entered the history books at St James Hospital in Leeds, because he became one of the very first adult ‘living donors’ to give a kidney to a child when policy changed at the medical facility.

In a candid interview on Page 16 of this week’s Sentinel, Mervyn and his wife, Beryl, talk about how they did everything they could for Ruth, and at one stage thought their little girl might die, but miraculously, not only did Ruth rally, she outlived the 10-year life-expectancy of her kidney transplant. Last week the family celebrated Ruth’s 35-year milestone anniversary after the pioneering operation, and said they hoped Ruth’s story would prove ‘an encouragement’ to others.

Encouraging people to consider carrying an Organ Donor card, Beryl Moorehead, who now lives at Woodford, near Plymouth, said: “Kidney transplants are commonplace these days, and Ruth has been privileged to be under the care of some of the finest specialists. I tell you this in case it might encourage someone else who has a child on renal dialysis”.