Irish mum of two donates a kidney to save her brothers life

A selfless act.

Maria Montgomery's brother David had been suffering from Organ failure since he was a young boy. She decided to donate her kidney to him to save his life. Maria lives in Scotland with her husband and two children and came back to Ireland to help her brother.

"I’m donating a kidney to my brother today. "He’s my baby brother at the end of the day, "I’ve never known life without him and I couldn’t imagine life without him, so it’s just right, just something I have to do." Maria said.

David explains that a transplant has been his only option for many years. 36-year-old Maria is clearly very close with her brother and explains why she decided to go through with the operation.

"If you looked up ‘gentleman’ in the dictionary, you would probably see a picture of my brother next to it. "He’s just one in a million, and I would do anything to help him. At the end of the day, we just want David to have his life back and to have a better quality of life. We just want to make him better." She said.

The operation and preparations will be documented on RTÉ's new show Keeping Ireland Alive which is a five part documentary series which chronicles Ireland's health system over a 24-hour period. David's story will feature on the second instalment of the show tonight on RTÉ One at 9.35.