The World Transplant Games came to Newcastle/Gateshead and I was delighted to volunteer, both as a general volunteer plus as an athletics volunteer on the competition days at Gateshead Stadium.
The Transplant Games is a special event and none more so as we know a Transplant athlete. That athlete is Louise McLellan and we first got to know her back in 2014 when she joined our training group. Now at the time, all Wor Bri (who coached us back then) told us was that we had to be careful as she'd had an operation. The bit we only found about following Louise appearing on GMTV in the build up to 2015 British Transplant Games, was that the operation had been a heart transplant !
So since then, Transplant sport has always been on our radar.
For the first three days of volunteering, I was based at Gateshead Stadium with the duties on the first day involving directing competitors and spectators at the Archery & Football competitions which was interesting, although the Archery was hard to watch as it's just too fast for my eyes. The footy was much better and I managed to see a bit of the semi final action.
The next two days switched to athletics and the stadium roles included looking after the training sessions and this was well & truly in my comfort zone. We had help from Gateshead Harriers volunteers too which added to the fun. The two days passed really quickly and we ended up coaching some of the younger athletes on events they hadn't really done before, especially Shot Put & High Jump. We had a great group of
Javelin throwers too which included a mix of Canadian & American ladies followed on by the Iranian men's team who were in no hurry to go home & then turned up mega early the following day !
So, onto the competition days and I was one of the Clerk's of Course which sounds like something posh but isn't - it's doing the event set up and take down and making sure everything is ok during the day. It wasn't without it's challenges though as we had a tight timetable to deliver across two days of competition. It wasn't easy, but we did it, thanks to a great team of James, Joyce, Hemant, Archie & me. It was a fantastic event, especially watching the kids compete and them not being afraid to wear a crop top & show their scars from Transplant surgery.
My highlight though was Carina - competing in the Shot for the first time & I did a little bit of coaching with her in the training sessions despite her not speaking much English - it was a mix of translation from her Mum & copying my arm actions. I did happen to see a little bit of her competition and was delighted that she came away with a bronze medal for the Swiss team. It's something that I won't forget !
All in all, I'm so proud that we got involved. This was Philippa's first proper volunteering role and she was at the athletics, cycling & table tennis during the week, plus Dominic was there at the athletics too.
Every day that week and more or less every day since, I've thought that all those competing wouldn't be alive without the excellent medical provision (& not just in the UK) and sadly without their donors, many of whom are no longer with us. I'm very clear that anybody can anything of mine when I no longer need it & I'd urge anyone reading to have that thought and that conversation with your nearest and dearest......
#Team19 #PassItOn #TransplantSport
The Transplant Games is a special event and none more so as we know a Transplant athlete. That athlete is Louise McLellan and we first got to know her back in 2014 when she joined our training group. Now at the time, all Wor Bri (who coached us back then) told us was that we had to be careful as she'd had an operation. The bit we only found about following Louise appearing on GMTV in the build up to 2015 British Transplant Games, was that the operation had been a heart transplant !
So since then, Transplant sport has always been on our radar.
For the first three days of volunteering, I was based at Gateshead Stadium with the duties on the first day involving directing competitors and spectators at the Archery & Football competitions which was interesting, although the Archery was hard to watch as it's just too fast for my eyes. The footy was much better and I managed to see a bit of the semi final action.
The next two days switched to athletics and the stadium roles included looking after the training sessions and this was well & truly in my comfort zone. We had help from Gateshead Harriers volunteers too which added to the fun. The two days passed really quickly and we ended up coaching some of the younger athletes on events they hadn't really done before, especially Shot Put & High Jump. We had a great group of
So, onto the competition days and I was one of the Clerk's of Course which sounds like something posh but isn't - it's doing the event set up and take down and making sure everything is ok during the day. It wasn't without it's challenges though as we had a tight timetable to deliver across two days of competition. It wasn't easy, but we did it, thanks to a great team of James, Joyce, Hemant, Archie & me. It was a fantastic event, especially watching the kids compete and them not being afraid to wear a crop top & show their scars from Transplant surgery.
My highlight though was Carina - competing in the Shot for the first time & I did a little bit of coaching with her in the training sessions despite her not speaking much English - it was a mix of translation from her Mum & copying my arm actions. I did happen to see a little bit of her competition and was delighted that she came away with a bronze medal for the Swiss team. It's something that I won't forget !
All in all, I'm so proud that we got involved. This was Philippa's first proper volunteering role and she was at the athletics, cycling & table tennis during the week, plus Dominic was there at the athletics too.
Every day that week and more or less every day since, I've thought that all those competing wouldn't be alive without the excellent medical provision (& not just in the UK) and sadly without their donors, many of whom are no longer with us. I'm very clear that anybody can anything of mine when I no longer need it & I'd urge anyone reading to have that thought and that conversation with your nearest and dearest......
#Team19 #PassItOn #TransplantSport
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