Life challengers celebrate a second chance

Life challengers celebrate a second chance and honour the ultimate gift.

By Greg Hampton

In August over 2,000 people from 50 countries will travel to Australia’s Gold Coast to compete in an event like no other – the 17th World Transplant Games. Set to be the biggest ever, the Games are a festival celebrating renewed life through organ donation and transplantation.

The only qualifying rule for competing in the Games is the very thing which makes them so remarkable. Every single athlete has received a life-saving organ transplant and is back living a healthy life again. They compete for their country and to honour their anonymous organ donor, their life saviour.

A fifty strong contingent of New Zealand athletes and supporters are heading to the games to compete in a variety of sports. Cycling is represented by two athletes, Debra Anderson in the 40 to 49 age group and myself in the 50 to 59 age group. The cycling events are reportedly very competitive throughout the age groups with average speeds close to 40 kms per hour. The cycling medals in previous years have been dominated by Europeans which is not surprising considering their cycling heritage.

The two cycling events on offer are surprisingly short to encourage participation for all comers (5km time trial and 20 km road race), but the speeds and intensities will be accordingly higher because of this. Hence (and because of my busy working life), I have tailored my training in the final months around quality rather than quantity, focusing on speed and power rather than distance. Time will tell if this has been an effective strategy.

Being my first games I'm not sure what to expect in the way of opposition. My goals at this stage are to medal but that will of course depend on who turns up. Im severely hoping for both his sake and mine that Eddy Merckx has not had an organ transplant in recent years. Results and times from previous games suggest that I wont be too far off the pace of the medallists in my veteran age group.

I have been into cycling for three years and it has been instrumental in bringing me back to full health and fitness. Prior to taking up cycling my general  fitness and quality of life was not what it is now. My sporting goals have progressed in tandem with my improved fitness over the 3 years. On my initial rides 3 years ago I struggled to complete twenty kilometres. Over time twenty kilometre rides became fifty, then one hundred. Soon I was club racing with the Morrinsville Wheelers and the Hauraki Handlebars, my  average speeds have improved over time to where I am now competitive in my age group. I highly recommend joining a club as I've learnt so much about training, skills and racing tactics in a short period of time, let alone the camaraderie.

I've enjoyed participating in several of the classic cycle challenges such as Taupo and the K1 but personally prefer the cut and thrust of the faster, shorter club  and regional racing. I've had a few wins and trophies along the way at club and local level, and recently contested the Waikato Bay of Plenty Road Cycling Champs where I placed second in my age group. Next stop the games.

The Games will be an uplifting celebration full of amazing stories from people of all ages and nationalities. Mine is but one of many stories that will be told and shared at this wonderful event.

Not unlike an elite athlete's journey to the top, recovery from a major operation is staged by numerous micro-goals and watersheds in the progression towards the end goal.

When I line up for my first event at the World Transplant Games, it will represent much more than a mere sporting challenge on a world stage. I will compete with the awareness that I have already faced the greatest challenge I will face - a life saving liver transplant.

My ticket to the transplant games was booked on an ordinary winter's night in June 2000 when my evening was interrupted by a sound that made my wife and I freeze and exchange looks and feelings of trepidation and mixed emotions. The sound was the beeping of a pager that I had been carrying around with me for seven weeks waiting for a compatible liver donation.

My next phone calls were to my two adult kids who were overseas to let them know I was going in for the operation. That was the hardest phone call I have ever made not knowing whether I would survive the operation to ever talk to or see my family again. Within a matter of hours we had driven to Auckland, been prepped and ready to undergo the operation. Another painful moment of goodbyes ensued in leaving my wife and youngest son at the doors to the operating theatre.

The sixteen hour operation became the starting gun to a series of personal and shared challenges we would face as a family. My initial goals were basic physical challenges; to sit up, to have the life supporting tubes removed from my neck, arms, nose and throat. The challenge to get out of bed, to stand, to walk to the toilet, to walk to the corridor, to walk around the ward and eventually to go for a walk in the neighbouring park. Fresh air and sunshine, “Im on the way back!”. On a daily basis, step by step I planned and pushed myself to achieve these basic physical goals that the healthy person takes for granted.

Upon release from hospital, a new phase begins. Whilst residing at “transplant house”, a stones throw away from my medical support at the hospital, we began the phase of rebuilding the family confidence that things were going to be ok again. My surgeon's assessment of my  old liver after the operation was that I would have been lucky to make Christmas. The feelings of  gratitude, relief and joy at this stage of my recovery was at times overwhelming.

Major organ transplant operations literally “gut” you both physically and emotionally as if your very soul has been bared. The emotional scars from such a major operation remain with you but provide valuable life lessons about what is most important in life: family and friendships. To get through these times it helps immensely to have a strong support team and my amazing wife and children were there for me all the way.

Around 10 weeks after the operation we were able to return home, leaving the security of the medical nest. It was another watershed but also an uncertain time. The challenges over the coming months and year were more mental and focused around regaining personal confidence in my ability to resume a “normal” life. Could I work again? Will I ever regain full health and physical fitness?

The answer was “yes”, but my path was still not without its ups and downs. After resuming work in my landscape business, I had a freak accident with a wheelbarrow which resulted in the puncture of my pancreas. I only found out three days later when I collapsed not knowing I had been bleeding internally all that time. A life saving Westpac helicopter flight, another operation and another stint in hospital followed. I felt closer to death on that occasion than with my transplant but recovered again. I was beginning to think that I was a cat steadily  working through my nine lives.

As a sporting and competitive soul, I sorely missed my sporting outlets. After a time I followed my son into the sport of cycling, albeit as a spectator for the first couple of years. When I did try out the bike myself it was a slow start (20 kilometres being a long ride), but a mind and body in coalition are an amazing tool. Determination, good advice, planning and progressive training allowed me to rebuild my physical fitness to the point where I felt I could take on a competitive sport again.

 Competing at the World Transplant Games is an opportunity for me to help raise awareness of the importance of organ donation. I hope the story of my experiences encourages fellow transplant recipients to believe in the possibility of a full recovery and to fight hard for it.

Much more important than the sporting opportunities, the gift of transplant has allowed me to continue to experience and enjoy my life with my family, watch my children grow up, get married and now the grandchildren are arriving. All life highlights I would have missed out on but for my donor's generous gift of an organ donation.

Its not just about the athletes.

The World Transplant Games is not just about the athletes. The festival represents and honours the ultimate gift of life that is organ donation. The other players in this game include the organ donors, the donor's family and the incredible medical professionals whose skills and dedication makes this miracle possible. And last but certainly not least – the athlete's own families who also  experience all of the pain and emotions that transplantation brings.

If you aren't already an organ donor, please think about it and discuss it with your family One day, someone in your life circle may require a life saving organ transplant. Be a donor.

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