IT’S SERIOUS BUSINESS on the field Croke Park tomorrow but the Waterford minor hurlers who face Galway in the All-Ireland Final are taking the opportunity to highlight another serious issue.

The Deise players will all be displaying the Organ Donor E-card above their jersey numbers during the game. The organ donor E-card can be downloaded and stored on users’ smartphones and provides another way to state a desire to be an organ donor.

There is a personal reason behind the Waterford players promoting organ donation with Waterford minors’ selector Kieran O’Gorman himself a living kidney donor. O’Gorman donated a kidney to his son Oisín four years ago with Oisín recently winning gold and bronze medals at the World Transplant Games in South Africa.

Colin White, national projects manager at the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) says the commitment of people such as O’Gorman make the most difference in the promotion or organ donation and the team’s gesture on Sunday shows this:

The Waterford team members are icons in their community and in Croke Park they will be on the national stage. The support of organ donation will really help to encourage the wider population to make a commitment to make a difference to the lives of others

Emer Barry of Waterford GAA said that it was “a great honour for our players to represent their county at the All-Ireland Minor Finals while at the same time being able to  promote organ donation.”

The IKA e-card can be downloaded on the App store and Google playstore via the IKA website.

Read: Seanad votes No on annulling transplant legislation >

Read: James Reilly asks the public if organ donation should be ‘opt-out’ >