Success for Nottingham Kidney Transplant Patients at British Transplant Games | Latest news

Just as the country celebrated the success of the England Commonwealth Games Team, so too is Nottingham University Hospital (NUH) NHS Trust celebrating their teams’ success at the British Transplant Games, recently held in Leeds.

The British Transplant Games are the flagship project of the charity Transplant Sport and have been in existence for over 40 years when the first “Transplant Olympics” took place in Portsmouth in 1978. Taking place in different host cities every summer, the games see teams from hospitals across the UK come together to compete in a medley of sports. The 4-day event attracts around 1000 transplant athletes and more than 1700 supporters. This year the Games took place in Leeds and was the first one held since the start of the pandemic.

NUH sent a team of adults and a team of children this year.  In the children’s team were 16 kidney transplant patients ranging in age from 5 to 18, supported by 6 staff from the Children’s Hospital (Kim Helm, Clare Alderson, Abby Sanders, Ben Melling, Becky Calthorpe and Martin Christian) along with 4 volunteers. They brought back the biggest medal haul yet with a total of 25 medals. This has been a great self-esteem boost for the children and young people who showed great displays of sportsmanship and built friendship with one another as team members.

Martin Christian, a Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist at Nottingham Children’s Hospital said, “Our youth support, and the Games have fostered the development of real role models amongst our young adults. We watched former patients as well as our current team. It is always an emotional event but the power of peer support is something that is unique to the Transplant Games and was particularly evident this year.”

The Nottingham Transplant Adult Team won 44 medals in total, taking 18 gold, 22 silver and 4 bronze. Simon Elmore, the Team Manager for Nottingham, said “It was a long 4-days but it was very worthwhile and really enjoyable to get out there, do activities again and introduce new people to the event. Transplant Sport helped me so much when I was dialysis and gave me the motivation to get fit and healthy for my transplant. It is really rewarding to see other people have that experience for the first time.”

The Games show the benefits of transplants, helping encourage transplant patients to regain their fitness. It also helps raise awareness about NHS Organ Donation and the difference that simple act can make to so many people’s lives. Further information can be found on the Transplant Sport website - https://transplantsport.org.uk/

Please also read about the charities which have supported event:
Helping All Four Nottingham Hospitals… | Nottingham Hospitals Charity
Charity | Daniellesflutterbyes | Nottingham
Kidney Care UK