I am the fourth generation of the Nolan family to run the well known butcher’s shop in Kilcullen, Co Kildare.

In March of 2012, the business, which was established in 1886, won the award for the best butcher shop in the UK and Ireland at the House of Lords in London.

I am also known as the man behind the annual charity race run at the Punchestown National Hunt Festival. In July 1987 I received a transplant of a kidney donated by my sister Catherine. It is not possible to put into words what an incredible act of kindness and generosity this was. She gave me the greatest gift of all, the gift of life, and I am well aware just how lucky I am to be so healthy thanks to Catherine’s brave decision to donate one of her kidneys.

My family have always had a keen interest in horses, and my great-uncle, Andy Nolan, who trained in Gormanstown, bred Roddy Owen, winner of the 1959 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

My parents, Andy & Ann, encouraged my brother Andrew, my three sisters Catherine (Doyle), Elaine (Bleahen), Sally Ann (O’Connor) and myself to learn to ride and we were all involved in the Kildare Pony Club from an early age.

I had a great interest in eventing and, with guidance from Diana Gilna, competed at nine Punchestown three-day events and also had the honour of representing Ireland at the sport.

One of my proudest moments was completing, clear within the time, the speed and endurance phase of the Punchestown three-day event in 1987, despite the fact that I was on kidney dialysis and dialysing myself four times a day, every day of the week.

In those days the speed and endurance phase of a three-day event consisted of two sections of roads and tracks of approximately 11 kilometres, a circuit of the Punchestown chase course before setting off on the four-mile cross-country course. Three-day evening is not the ideal sport to be involved in if you are a renal patient!

After the transplant, I wanted to do something for people on dialysis, so in 1989 I approached Cahir O’Sullivan of the Turf Club and Joan Moore and Peter Martin of Punchestown Racecourse, with a proposal to run a charity race at the 1990 Festival.

The idea was to try and raise organ donor awareness in Ireland, while raising funds for kidney-related projects.

High-profile horses like Moscow Flyer, Bobby Joe, Newmill and Hardy Eustace have all participated and to date the race has raised €1.3 million. Projects to have benefited from the proceeds include a holiday home in Tralee, Co Kerry for dialysis patients, art therapy programmes for renal patients at hospitals in Tallaght and Waterford, and a home haemodialysis training unit at the National Transplant Centre.

It has supported cancer-screening for transplant recipients at Beaumont Hospital and sports bursaries for dialysis and transplant patients, as well as sending dialysis patients to Lourdes, and many more worthwhile projects.

I rode as an amateur jockey in some bumpers and flat races. I consider myself very lucky to have had great support from Liam Browne, who not only trained my first winner Zaola, in the annual sweepstakes race in Naas, but also organised my ride on Nero’s Dancer, from Jim Gorman’s yard, when I managed to win the Punchestown charity race back in 2002 at a price of 50/1.

After winning the Punchestown race, I turned my attention to athletics and transplant sports.

Since then, I have represented Ireland at 18 international championships all over the world. Last month, I competed at the European Championships for Transplant Sports in Poland. Cheered on by my wife Emma and our son Andrew James, I managed a bronze in the summer biathlon, silver in the golf, bronze in the 400 metres, fifth in the 200 metres and fifth in the 4 x 100 metres.

My appreciation of life is tangible because I was given a second chance thanks to my sister Catherine and, just like all transplant recipients, I will never ever forget just how lucky I am.

For a free organ donor card please text the word DONOR to 50050. Thank you.

James Nolan was in conversation with John O’Riordan.