Transplants No Handicap As Athletes Go For Gold

21 August 2009Two thousand athletes from around the world, with one unusual thing in common, are heading to the Gold Coast to compete in the 17th World Transplant Games.

The only qualifying rule for the tournament is that every athlete has had an organ transplant - heart, kidney, liver, pancreas, lungs or bone marrow.

Wellingtonians Alan Power and Debra Anderson are among the 24-member Kiwi transplant team.

Mrs Anderson was found to have leukaemia when she was 21 and had her first bone marrow transplant when she was 27. She had another in 2007.

This will be her first time at the games. "I wish I'd known about it 20 years ago when I was younger and running triathlons and doing Ironman races."

Training after a transplant took its toll on the body, she said.

"I might go out one day and feel good and then the next day it's like I've just started running again; it just depends how you feel on the day."

Mr Power, who had a heart transplant in 2003, has competed twice before: in Canada in 2005 and Thailand in 2007.

He won a gold medal in Thailand for doubles tennis and is keen to repeat his performance.

The games run for a week from tomorrow, with athletes competing in 10-year age brackets.

The Dominion Post