This article is from page 16 of the 2012-03-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
EVERY morning Agnieszka Abramczyk goes to work at 8am in the Holy Family School, Ennis.
The dinner lady loves her job, especially working with the children.
Very few people are aware however that the jolly mother of two is one of the 35 people awaiting a kidney transplant in Clare.
Mrs Abramczyk has been on dialysis since March 2006. This is a date she is not likely to forget, as her life changed forever.
Since then she travels to the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick four times a week for dialysis, which takes up to four and a half hours.
Three of the sessions are at night and one in the afternoon.
The most difficult part of the process for the young woman is the tiredness.
Most weeks she finishes her dialysis at 5.30am, comes home to Ennis and then gets ready for work at 8am.
“I sleep when I get home at 2pm,” she told The Clare People .
She loves her job though as it allows her to escape from her thoughts about her illness.
“When I was diagnosed first I was waiting every day to hear the phone ring from the transplant team. Now I just forget about it and think about living,” she said.
Agnieszka is on the transplant list for two years, but with many waiting for up to three years she is not waiting on tender hooks for the allimportant call any time soon.
Her family are very supportive of the lady that made Ireland her home seven years ago.
Husband Piotr was willing to give the love of his life one of his kidneys. However when he was tested it was discovered that their blood was not compatible and the transplant could not go ahead.
Her 18-year-old son Adrian has already signed up as an organ donor and carries a card everywhere.
Daughter Natalia is just 14 but she tells The Clare People that she cannot wait to turn 18 so she too can sign up to be an organ donor.
While she does not know the day or the hour she will receive a new kidney, Agnieszka is hoping that in the interim she can go on home dialysis.
This would mean that she would not have to leave home for her weekly treatment.
The Polish native is also full of praise for the medical staff who have been treating her for the last six years.