Leaving Cert on dialysis pleads for early Covid vaccine

A Galway Leaving Cert student living with chronic kidney failure has pleaded with the Minister for Health to move herself and fellow renal patients up the Covid vaccine list – because of the very real danger they’ll contract the virus while undergoing their weekly dialysis.

That fear is compounded by the Irish Kidney Association’s revelation that they have a 25% mortality risk if they catch Covid-19 – and yet, if they are under 18, they are 15th, or last, on the priority list, and seventh in line if they are 18 and over.

Lauren Melia, a 19 year old Leaving Cert student from Oughterard, has had kidney problems all her life – but a transplant in 2012 gave her almost eight years of what she calls a normal life.

However her kidney failed again in August 2019, just as she was heading into Fifth Year – and now she has to attend hospital three times a week for dialysis.

Her problems were compounded by Covid, because that means she has to cocoon as she is classified as having ‘a very high risk’ of contracting the virus – the same risk group as the over-seventies.

“As a Leaving Cert student the anxiety around the exam is enormous as it is but to through Covid, dialysis and appointments into it all makes everything more stressful and worrying,” she said.

“It is vital for me to receive this vaccine as soon as I can get it, which should be sooner rather than later.”

Read Lauren’s full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download our digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie