Plymouth transplant team hits gold
Twelve gold medals, six silver, six bronze and one trophy later, eight competitors at this year’s British Transplant Games celebrate success.
The British Transplant Games is an annual event and is held in major cities across Britain. This year’s event took place over four days in Bolton, from 7-10 August.
Janet Jenkins, Terry Wright, Keith Parsons, John Wollington, Tracey Carrol, Steve Jarvis, Tony Edwards and Bradley Ball, who are all recipients of kidney transplants from the South West Transplant Centre, based at Derriford Hospital, travelled to Bolton to compete in the annual games.
Following months of intensive training, the eight competitors collected the medals after competing in a number of events including table tennis, badminton, archery and many more.
Janet Jenkins, a very happy and proud Team Manager said: “I want to thank everyone, competitors, supporters, committee members, various sponsors, doctors & nurses for making this games the biggest (for some time) for the Plymouth team and the team proudly bringing home 12 gold medals, six silver, six bronze plus a trophy for the best male athlete in age group.
“You don’t have to be sports minded and a medal winner to be part of the team, taking part is the most important thing because of what we all have been through. What a way to say ‘thank you’ to our donors for allowing us to be able to live our lives to the full and experience the British Transplant Games.
“I am really looking forward to next year in Newcastle where we hope to get the magic ten competitors so we can aim for the best team award! We may be small but what quality we have here in the South West”.
The aim of the event is to raise awareness of transplantation and encourage people to sign the organ donor register to help save the lives of thousands of people currently on the transplant list in the UK.
To find out more about the Westfield Health British Transplant Games please visit www.britishtransplantgames.co.uk
To Join the NHS Organ Donor Register and help save lives TEXT: SAVE to 62323, call 0300 123 2323 or visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk
