Transplant football team have won already

Cillian Ferry

Cork is well represented at the Transplant Football World Cup taking place in Germany this week.

Three West Cork transplant recipients, including the team manager who was given just two months to live in 2007, will pull on the green jersey when they represent Ireland at the Transplant Football World Cup in Frankfurt in a competition that began on Sunday and runs until Friday 18 September.

The footballers are part of a Transplant Sport Ireland team of ten who will join transplant recipients from around the world for the international tournament bringing together 15 national teams of organ transplant recipients from across the globe celebrating the ultimate gift of life, athletic resilience, and the global power of organ donation.

Managing and playing is Rosscarbery man Mike Keohane. Mike was told in 2007 that he had approximately two months to live without a transplant. Just 11 days later, he received the call that changed his life, that a donor was available. Now, more than 17 years later, Mike remains well and active and travelled to Frankfurt with the hope to manage the Irish team to success.

Fellow West Cork player Val Weblin from Leap spent two years in a wheelchair and depended on oxygen every day before receiving a double lung transplant in 2000. “The day the call came about the transplant changed my life and I’ve never looked back.”

Val went on to marry his wife Julie and become a father to his son, Thomas. He subsequently received another transplant in 2018, this time a kidney, and returned to football. “It truly is the gift of life”.

Patrick O’Driscoll from Ahiohill will also be donning green ten years after a liver transplant that “gave him a second chance in life”. Father of three, Patrick said that learning to accept that life after a transplant can be different is one of his greatest achievements - “every day is a new start”.

Irish transplant athletes have competed successfully at World, European and British transplant games, winning numerous gold, silver and bronze medals while using sport to demonstrate what can be achieved following transplantation. They hope this tournament will be no different.

Transplant Sport Ireland (TSI) is the national governing body for transplant sport in Ireland and is run by volunteers, including transplant recipients themselves. They bring together transplant recipients and people receiving dialysis, along with families, supporters and volunteers, encouraging members to participate in sport and physical activity at all levels, from social training and meet up days to international competition.

The central purpose of the organisation is to raise awareness for organ donation and honour organ donors and donor families.