Brave Julia Wins Gold
23 September 2009When Julia Woolf was four years old, a complete stranger saved her life.
She was suffering from acute liver failure when she underwent a transplant. The liver came from an anonymous donor.
The doctors told her mother Yoke Har Lee that Julia would have died within a day if she didn't receive the donor liver.
Now seven years later, Julia is like any other 11-year-old girl.
She has just returned home from the Gold Coast, where she represented New Zealand at the 17th World Transplant Games.
The talented athlete won four medals gold in the 50m sprint, tennis and long jump and a silver in swimming.
She also broke world transplant games records in both long jump and the 50m sprint.
She was among 24 Kiwis who travelled to the games and brought back 30 medals in total.
Julia says going to the games was an easy decision.
"We thought it would be fun meeting heaps of people from around the world and competing."
The games gave Julia the opportunity to meet other people from New Zealand who have had transplants, including three other liver transplant children.
She says she made at least 50 new friends and is keeping in touch with them through Bebo and Facebook.
Julia was one of 1600 competitors from 50 countries, all of whom have had a transplant and owe their lives to an organ donor.
At the opening ceremony the families of organ donors were celebrated and recognised for their selfless act.
Ms Lee wants people to know about Julia's story to show people how organ donation saves lives.
She says organ donors are the "unsung heroes" of our society.
Ms Lee says the games are the perfect way to show that people who have had transplants can lead completely normal lives.
"You couldn't tell. A lot of them looked like real Olympians.
"It goes to show these people do the most normal of normal things."
One of the highlights of the trip for Julia and her mother was meeting a 93-year-old heart transplant survivor.
"It gives us a lot of hope that our lives can be normal."
The World Transplant Games are held every two years and are the single biggest transplant and organ donation awareness event in the world.
The games feature 14 sports including athletics, table tennis, lawn bowls and tenpin bowling.
To be eligible to compete, New Zealand athletes must have had kidney, liver, heart, lung, bone marrow or pancreas transplants.
The next World Transplant Games will be held in Goteborg, Sweden, in 2011.
By Jessie Colquhoun - East And Bays Courier
