BELFAST City Hall was illuminated pink on Monday night as part of Organ Donation week. The civic building was cast in colour following Sinn Féin Councillor’s Micheál Donnelly’s council motion calling for cross party support for a ‘Soft Opt-Out Organ Donation’ during the full monthly meeting. Cllr Donnelly called on council to support the introduction of soft opt-out organ donation legislation in the North which would follow the example led by the introduction of the same legislation in Wales in 2015. The motion was carried by 37 to 14 votes.
As part of their Is Deontóir Mé/Yes I Donate campaign, the family of West Belfast toddler Dáithí Mac Gabhann lent their support to the council motion as they geared up to mark the important week. “As it’s organ donation week, it gives us an opportunity to shout even louder than normal from our rooftop about the importance of organ donation.
“We did the impossible on Saturday night by lighting up our beautiful Black Mountain with ‘I Donate’ and this week is shaping up to be a pretty busy one in terms of raising awareness for our campaign and organ donation,” said Dáithí’s father Máirtín.
“Dáithí will be welcomed to the Lord Mayor’s parlour on Friday and the Donate4Dáithí charity is the official match partner for the biggest game in Irish football this weekend with Cliftonville against Linfield on Saturday. To finish off the week there will be our biggest ever Gaeltacht Quarter 10K with 500 people running in pink throughout West Belfast.
“From we started the campaign we want to, and continue to, normalise the conversation around organ donation and this week gives us that platform,” he said.
