Ruddington resident Mark Brown was part of an 11 strong team from Nottingham City Hospital attending the Westfield Health British Transplant Games August 15-18.
Mark (46) suffered from the hereditary condition Alports Syndrome, which led to kidney failure at the age of 25. After 20 months on dialysis which lasted for four hours a day, three days a week, Mark had a successful kidney transplant in 1994.
Mark entered the archery, golf, darts, lawn bowls and javelin events. “I wasn’t expecting to win any medals, just to use the games as a platform to promote the need for people to sign up to the donor register. Reaching the final of the darts competition was a great achievement, with my wife Jo there to see me win a silver medal, followed the next day by a bronze in the lawn bowls” Mark told us ” I’d not even picked a bowl up till the week before when my father in law Phil gave me a few pointers! I was also proud of my younger brother James who also received a kidney transplant 10 years ago and attended the Games for the first time.”
Mark says “…it was scary when I got the call to say a transplant was available, my condition was stable and, though now a routine operation for the specialists involved, still not without risk. Thankfully it’s now 19 years since my transplant, and it’s still going strong.
I’ve attended a number of Winter World Transplant Games, winning medals in Ski-ing, Snowboarding and Curling. Nottingham City hospital were keen to get a team together for the British Games this year, and were delighted to bring back 14 medals.
More than 10,000 people in the UK are currently waiting for a transplant, and three people die while waiting every day. But with only 29% of the UK population actually registered as organ donors, the NHS Organ Donor Register team says 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.
To add your name to the NHS Organ Donor register, call 0300 1232323, text SAVE to 62323 or visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk.