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PRESS RELEASE: 23 August 2005

Addenbrooke's transplant patients to compete in national games

A team of 20 former transplant patients from Addenbrooke's Hospital are to travel to the British Transplant Games in Leicester, which begin on Thursday 25 August, in the hope of returning home with a clutch of medals.

The games have been staged in the UK for more than 25 years, and aim to promote the benefits of transplant surgery and encourage organ donation, as well as proving that there is life after transplant. The team will take place in a variety of events such as volleyball, swimming, bowls, archery, badminton, squash, tennis, shot put, cycling and a mini marathon.

Five of the Addenbrooke's team have already represented Great Britain at the World Transplant Games.

One of these, Colin Aspland, who underwent a liver transplant six years ago and will be competing in the bowls and badminton events, said: “Taking part in the games is a wonderful experience. It’s like joining a huge new family of people who have been through a similar situation. I know it’s a bit of a cliché but it’s the taking part that’s important - if we win a medal it’s a bonus. We all just love being there knowing that every day is a bonus for us and only made possible by our life-saving transplants.”

Nina Herbert, a clinical research sister at Addenbrooke's who is the team manager added: "The transplant games is a celebration of the gift of life, and proof that life goes on after transplants."

Notes to editors
• Addenbrooke's is a world leader in transplant surgery, with the transplant unit playing an important role in the research and evolution of clinical transplantation over the last 40 years. Some of its achievements include the first liver transplant outside the USA in 1968, the world's first combined heart, lung and liver transplant with Papworth NHS Trust in 1986 and the first small bowel transplant in the UK in 1992.
• Four different types of transplants are performed at the hospital - liver and kidney transplantation (the two most common procedures) and combined pancreas and kidney transplantation and intestinal transplantation. Last year, 89 liver transplants (including four combined liver and kidney transplants), 80 kidney transplants and four combined pancreas and kidney transplants were performed at Addenbrooke's.

For further press/media information contact: PR & Communications Department, Box 53, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ; Tel: 01223 274 433; Fax: 01223 257 143; Minicom: 01223 274 604.