Today has been a long time in coming. However, finally I am now activated on the waiting list for a kidney transplant at Beaumont Hospital in north Dublin.

This afternoon I got a call from one of the transplant coordinators and was given the good news. So, from now on, I will have a bag packed at home should it be needed; my phone will be on loud even at night; and if I leave the country for a holiday I must let them know.

Today is not the end, but it is another step along the way towards a kidney transplant. I know that the call could come tonight, next month, in four years’ time, or never. But it is a little ray of further hope.

Thank you to all who have helped and pushed me to get to this stage: the nursing and medical staffs of Tallaght University Hospital, the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore, Beaumont Hospital, the BBraun Wellstone Midlands Renal Care Centre, and of course my friends and family especially Andrew.