Still waiting for a kidney transplant, Adrian Cummins urges people not to opt out of 'giving the gift of life'

ADRIAN CUMMINS SPENDS more than 10 hours on dialysis each week as he awaits a kidney transplant.

Organs from 64 deceased people were donated this year, which is less than the 84 donated in 2024. That is despite the Human Tissue Act, which made organ donation an opt-out system, coming into effect in the summer.

Some people with organ failure wait years for a transplant, having a significant impact on their quality of life and that of their families.

Cummins, who is head of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2019, and he’s been on the waiting list for a transplant for two years. In the meantime, he undergoes dialysis every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for at least 3.5 hours at a time – something he cannot go without.

He gets up at 5am on those days so he can complete his dialysis before work.

No one in his family was in a position to donate a kidney to him, so he must rely on a deceased donor.

Cummins told The Journal that the decline in donors this year is disheartening and may indicate that more can be done to harvest organs efficiently in cases where someone has died and hasn’t opted out.

We hear every day there’s an increase in the number of car crashes and fatalities … but that doesn’t translate into donations. 

Because each hour that passes after death can impact the quality of an organ and the viability of a transplant, Cummins emphasised the need for them to be harvested and transported to transplant centres as quickly as possible.

It’s one of many areas that needs increased resourcing, according to Cummins and the Irish Kidney Association (IKA).

Cummins, who lives in Dublin but is originally from Galway, can’t go home for Christmas as the dialysis centres in the county are already full.

He says he’d like to see centres open in counties that don’t currently have any, such as Roscommon, because it would reduce the travel time for people in those areas and free up spaces in existing centres.

Cummins believes Ireland could learn from countries who do organ donation and transplantation well. Spain, for example, is the world leader, due to its highly organized National Transplant Organisation, dedicated hospital transplant coordinators, and strong public buy-in.

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“We need to send our teams over there to look at their coordinators to see can we learn what they’re doing well that we can bring back to Ireland,” he said.

“There’s a lot of work to be done.”

There are almost 700 people currently on waiting lists for organ transplants. Almost 80% of these required a kidney transplant, as of last year.

At the end of 2024, 2,581 people were on dialysis in Ireland – more than three times the number in 2000. 

Chronic Kidney Disease affects approximately one in ten of the general population in Ireland, and is on course to be the fifth leading cause of death globally by 2040.

Early identification and effective management of kidney disease can slow or prevent progression to end-stage renal failure, reducing the number of people who will require dialysis or transplant.

Cummins urged everyone – particularly men – to go to their doctor and get the simple blood test done.

“I was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2019. If I was diagnosed five, six years prior, I might not have had to go on dialysis,” he said.

Cummins also asked people not to opt out of organ donation.

“If you pass away and your organs are donated, you’re giving the gift of life to another person,” he said.

“It’s a gamechanger in terms of quality of living.”

He said being on dialysis long-term can have an impact on a patient’s mental health.

While the Irish Kidney Association does offer some counselling sessions, Cummins says consistent, high-quality public mental healthcare should be provided to patients.

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