Daithi MacGabhann, nine, has returned home to Belfast after spending more than eight years waiting for a new heart — a world record. He arrived on Monday evening, wearing the home shirt of his beloved Liverpool FC, following a 45-minute flight from Newcastle.
World record wait ends
Daithi had been waiting for the transplant call since 2018. He was under the care of the same Freeman Hospital children's transplant team that looked after Mirror campaigner Max Johnson, now 18 and at college. Daithi left Ward 23 to a guard of honour and the sound of the Rocky anthem, "Eye of the Tiger," and remained on Tyneside for a few more weeks to continue his recovery.
He travelled on an air ambulance with a small number of family members, as he has to remain in isolation as much as possible while taking anti-rejection drugs for his new donor heart. His family posted images of him arriving in Belfast.
Father's campaign for law change
His dad, Mairtin, 36, joined the Mirror's crusade to change the law in Northern Ireland to the opt-out system introduced in England following the 'Change the Law for Life' campaign. In 2023, the Northern Irish assembly passed Daithi's Law, bringing organ donation rules there into line with the rest of the UK.
Mairtin told the Mirror: "He is back home. Everything happened so suddenly on Monday. He got back on Monday evening and it is great to be back." He added: "Everyone has heard of Daithi now back in Ireland, so the law change is a massive part of our society now. But we are also learning from some of the mistakes with opt-out. We have to keep the pressure on politicians to make it work."
Gratitude to donor family
His son will now be able to "make the absolute most of life" thanks to his transplant. "We always knew he had freckles, but I mean you want to see how popping these freckles are. It's just unbelievable," Mairtin said.
Mairtin and his wife Seph, 30, who also have two-year-old twins Padraig, Declan and daughter Cairbre, four, worked tirelessly to introduce the new organ donor legislation. It was named Daithi's Law in honour of his son and introduced in Northern Ireland in 2023, three years after the Mirror backed Max and Keira's Law was introduced in England.
Mairtin recalled: "We met Max and his family at the British Heart Foundation awards and have kept in touch. Max is doing well and the story of Max and Keira gave us hope. They are our heroes and increased Daithi's chances of getting a heart. The Mirror campaign has done so much to raise awareness, we are truly grateful for that."
Mairtin was made an MBE in 2024. Daithi was awarded the freedom of Belfast in 2023, also for his work on the organ donation campaign. His dad added: "Organ donation is the greatest gift anyone can ever give. We are beyond grateful to Daithi's donor and their family for making such a selfless decision at the most difficult time imaginable."
Mirror campaigner Max, of Winsford, Cheshire, insisted Keira, who died aged nine in a car accident near her home in Barnstaple, Devon, should be remembered forever when the new law was named in their honour. He thinks of Keira every Christmas, birthday and anniversary of his operation, which took place in August 2017. He said: "I will be forever grateful."
Max and Keira's Law means adults in England are now considered to be organ donors when they die unless they 'opt out'. It was introduced in May 2020 and means would-be donors no longer need to carry a donor card. Both adult and child patients can wait years for an organ transplant.
In 2018, Gareth Evans, 45, a dad-of-two from Stockport, made a public appeal for donors after more than nine years waiting for a new heart. He originally had a heart transplant in 1990 for cardiomyopathy, when he was aged just 17, but it was failing. "Having a new heart is like being a little boy and having Christmas every day," he said at the time. "But having to tell the family you may not make it, is the most difficult thing to do. The final thing you can do is to be a hero, save people's lives. There's nothing more marvellous than that." He received a new heart in October 2018, but sadly died days later.
