THE Dublin leg of a nationwide campaign to establish Ireland's first heart and lung transplant unit was launched yesterday by singer Christy Moore.
Organised by the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland, the "sign up for life" campaign hopes to collect at least 100,000 signatures calling on the new Minister for Health to establish the promised £2.2 million unit as a matter of urgency.
Cystic fibrosis sufferers are at present forced to travel to England, at great risk to their health, because of the lack of heart and lung transplant facilities here, said Mr Larry Warren, chief executive of the association. "Doctors in England are also very slow to give, viable donor organs to Irish patients who must make what is a very traumatic journey," he said.
With an estimated 1,000 sufferers, Ireland has the highest incidence of cystic fibrosis per capita in Europe. Of 47 Irish people awaiting transplants in Britain last year, six were successfully operated on, while 13 died waiting to be called.
This year, only one Irish patient has received a transplant, while six on the waiting list have died.
Christy Moore paid tribute to one such victim 23 year old Barret Moriarty, from Dundrum, Co Dublin, who died this year.
"I visited Barret at hospital and at his home and I was always amazed by his courage and good humour; he never seemed to complain. He was a very inspiring young man," said Mr Moore.
Mr Warren welcomed a commitment in the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats' Action Programme for the New Millennium to make the establishment of a heart and lung transplant unit a priority.
He said the association "will be seeking a very early meeting with the new Minister and the Department of Health to fast track the initiative, because the longer we wait the more people die".
He said the new unit could be established cost effectively at Dublin's Mater Hospital, where heart transplants are already being performed, or at St James's Hospital.