Donor Gill to take part in transplant games

A Teesside University academic has gone from donating a kidney to a complete stranger to representing her country in a major international sporting event.

When Dr Gill Owens became one of the first 500 people in the UK to altruistically donate a kidney in March 2015, little did she think that it would lead to her being invited to take part in the World Transplant Games.

Gill, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Management in the University’s School of Social Sciences, Business & Law, will travel to Spain next summer to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the 100 metres sprint - a distance that she was very successful as a schoolgirl. It is the first time donor events have been included in the games.

Gill is being sponsored by the University who are covering the costs of competition entry, flights and accommodation as well as two training events ahead of the games.

She will also benefit from practical support and training from the Sports Science department and is currently assembling ‘Team Gill’ with experts at the University.

Gill said: 'So far in Team Gill we have Paul Chesterton, a physiotherapist who programme leads our BSc Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Course, and Matt Wright, who is one of our Elite Sports Officers who are preparing a training regime for me. I really appreciate their involvement.

'I also have complete support from colleagues, which is just amazing and also from many of our students who have been so receptive to what I am doing.'

She added: 'There will be 250 members of team GB flying out to Malaga and each athlete needs to raise their own costs. In addition, Transplant Sport are looking to raise an additional £25,000 to enable a support team to fly out to Malaga.

‘This is an amazing and totally unexpected opportunity for me and the best incentive that I could have to get myself track ready fit.

‘More importantly it is a chance to promote the cause of both organ donation and transplant sport to help demonstrate that you can enjoy a perfectly fit, healthy and active life after either donating or receiving a kidney.'

Gill joined those who have altruistically donated a kidney after the process became legal in 2006. Altruistic kidney donation involves an individual offering their kidney as a living donor to an unknown person in order to enable to recipient to live a longer and healthier life.

In April 2015 there were 6,919 people on the UK organ donor waiting list, each waiting an average of two and a half years for a donor. Awareness of this situation led to the development of a legal framework for altruistic donation in the UK.

The World Transplant Games take place in Malaga, Spain in June 2017.

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