Less than two years ago Pat O’Sullivan from Mallow was on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, and his life was taken up with dialysis and waiting for the phone to ring with a voice at the other end to say that a kidney was available. Thankfully, the phone call eventually came, and this week Pat was named on a 29-member Ireland team to travel to Malaga in Spain next month for the World Transplant Games. In his younger years, Pat was a keen track athlete and also played with Mallow RFC, and now that he has been given his health back, he is travelling to Malaga to compete in long jump, and 50m and 100m races.
Pat joined up with the other members of Team Transplant Ireland last Sunday at the ALSAA Sports Complex, Dublin Airport, where they received a motivational talk from the Kilkenny All Star hurling great Michael Fennelly, who shared his experiences as a prolific player and lecturer in nutrition and coaching. At the World Games, the 29 Irish competitors will join others from over 50 countries in what will be the biggest gathering of transplant recipients this year – almost 1,000 competi-tors will take on events as diverse as athletics, badmin-ton, swimming, ten-pin bowling and darts, to name but a few. Ranging in age from 30 to 79, Transplant Team Ireland includes 5 liver transplant recipients, and 24 who have undergone kidney transplants.