Phelim O’Neill with his family in Athlone last year.

A County Roscommon man has said that he “never felt as good” after receiving a kidney transplant on this day 27 years ago.

Phelim O’Neill, a former Clann na nGael and Roscommon goalkeeper, took to social media this afternoon to say that he was thinking of his donor and urged anyone without a donor card to “please get one”.

“You could make someone like me very grateful and happy,” he said.

Phelim was diagnosed with autoimmune disease lupus in his teens, and although it was managed for a number of years, his kidneys failed at the age of 21.

After six months on dialysis, Beaumont Hospital called with the news there was a kidney waiting. The transplant took place the next day, on his 22nd birthday, in 1996.

Phelim went on to be part of the Clann na nGael senior football panel that won the Roscommon Senior Football Championship in 2015.