If, while you self-isolate, you happen upon the description of a TV drama with a story that takes the hero from the depths to the heights, making a lot of stops along the way, and you find your interest piqued and you read on. There's a descent into alcohol and drug-taking, a taxi driver with a big knife, the redemptive power of prayer, and a chance encounter ultimately leading to life-saving organ donation. It sounds like the best drama you've come across in ages. Except you can't watch it on TV. Because it isn't a drama, it's the real-life story that Johnny McCarthy and Niamh O'Flanagan told Ryan Tubridy this morning.

The story starts with Johnny, who's from Ballintubber in Co Mayo. At 18, he went to the US to look for work. He had friends out there and he described his inital time as "party season". He got odd jobs, but he found that his money was gone within a few days of getting paid, as he would spend it in the bars of New York City that stayed open most of the night. He managed to stop drinking when he was 26, but only swapped one drug for another.

"I started taking some drugs and that. I took up jogging and karate and cocaine, in that order."

Johnny's lifestyle led him into some difficult situations. He'd black out while drinking and wake up in dangerous places.

"Very regularly I'd get into dangerous situations. Maybe not through my own fault, but just being in the wrong place at the wrong time and just managing to escape. Like, a crack dealer saved my life in New York, you know?"

Then came the taxi driver holding a big knife to his neck. Johnny decided he needed help to drag himself out of the mire and when he came across a church in Penn Station and he started going in and praying.

"I had no idea who God was, but I knew who Padré Pio was from my Grandmother."

Praying to Padré Pio did the trick for Johnny and he was able to get off the drugs and out of the cycle of destruction he was in.

He came back to Ireland and got involved with youth groups and faith groups. Then he was invited to join the Diocesan Retreat Team in Tuam. And that'd where Niamh comes into the story. She was, she told Ryan, a "bit wayward" in her teenage years. Johnny was involved in a retreat that took place at Niamh's school in 1996. They prayed together – which had a profound effect on Niamh – and stayed in touch afterwards.

"He prayed with me and as he was praying with me, I just kind of felt like I was swallowing fire. It was quite amazing really. And it stayed with me."

Niamh and Johnny stayed in contact over the years and then, Johnny got sick. He was told he was suffering from kidney failure. He spent eight and a half years on dialysis.

"Niamh came along one day and said, 'I'll give you a kidney'. I said, 'Don't be bothered doing that now'."

It's a remarkable story that really has everything and you can hear it in full here.

You can find out more about organ donation and contact the Irish Kidney Association here.

Niall Ó Sioradáin