Transplants are remarkable medical interventions and they can have transformative results for those who receive them. They offer a second chance at life and many beneficiaries of transplants go on to make the very most of those second chances and to achieve remarkable things.
The World Transplant Games are a showcase for some of these incredible stories and I was privileged to meet one of those competing from our area last week. Boryana Nankova has undergone not one but two liver transplants, with all the associated health challenges that brings, especially through a period of heightened vulnerability during the pandemic period, but she is also a competitive table tennis player and she goes to the World Transplant Games in April as Captain of the Team GB Table Tennis Team. This is quite an achievement as the Games, which will be held in Perth, Australia, will involve around 1000 athletes from 60 countries and will be the third largest multi-sport international event in the world. Sport has always had the capacity to tell great stories and to bring people together, but this event has an extra dimension. Joining Boryana in Perth will be not just her fellow transplant athletes, but also live donors and family members of those donors who have died. Most of us can only imagine the mixture of sadness and pride those family members will feel as they watch the people their loved ones enabled to live on compete at the highest level of competitive transplant sport. I wish Boryana and all those competing the very best of luck and I hope that those who will be spectating from the donor community find the experience as hopeful and uplifting as this celebration of all that transplants can achieve could be.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that as the GB Transplant Games Team does not receive financial support, athletes have to fund their training, kit, registration and travel themselves, amounting to around £5000. If you can help Boryana to attend by making a donation, you can do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/boryana-nankova-wtg-2023.
