World Transplant Games, supported by the International Olympic Committee, represents the largest organ donor awareness event in the world, and featured a week of 17 sporting events. Team Great Britain, the largest team of 266 athletes, joined 1400 other transplant athletes from 50 countries across the globe. The GB Team included 25 junior athletes and 16 live donor athletes, supported by Donor and Live Donor families. The transplant athletes have had heart, lungs, liver, kidney, pancreas, multi visceral and stem cell transplants. Team GB was accompanied by a further 350+ supporters including the management team

Lynne Holt, Team Manager and Patron of Transplant Sport said: “The World Transplant Games are a great opportunity for our transplant athletes to compete at an international level, to share their stories and inspire people to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register. The event was also an ideal opportunity for the German hosts to promote organ donation producing a new Donor card. Competing at the British and World Transplant Games would not be possible without the generosity of the organ donors who ensure that these athletes can demonstrate the benefits of lifesaving transplantation.”

Team GB took the lead in the medal table, achieving oner 400 medals (173 gold, 132 silver, and 98 bronze), followed by Team Germany (187 participants) with 74 gold, 74 silver, and 57 bronze medals, and then Team USA (110 participants) with 56 gold, 40 silver and 50 bronze medals
At the Closing Ceremony, The “Baton of Life” has now been symbolically passed on to Leuven (Belgium), where the next World Transplant Games will take place in 2027.

More than 8,000 people in the UK are currently waiting for a transplant and sadly, people die waiting! But with only 59% per cent of the UK population registered as organ donors, and a relative refusal rate of 43%, more work needs to be done to raise awareness of donation and to urge those on the donor register to share their wishes with their loved ones.