While organ donations can look like a happy ending for patients after years of dialysis and waiting lists, regaining their old lives could be another story.
This month, the first transplant Football World Cup will be held in Italy, with teams from both Republic and Northern Ireland competing.
Among the Northern Ireland teams are Belfast player/manager Orasmith (45) and team captain David Garley (39) from Newtown Abu Bay.
Orla is currently chairing the transplant sports Northern Ireland. This is a charity that encourages donor recipients to embrace sports.
After a failed kidney transplant in 2004, she successfully competed in the match three years later.
“I was very sporty before I got sick. Then I was on dialysis for four years and the sport was completely out of the question,” she said.
“For me, going back to sports was the highlight of bringing my life back.
“When you're waiting for a port, you're on the frontier. You're not alive. You're still there until the phone calls.
“We know that many of our peers are the same. It's trying to regain that normality. That's why our charity exists.”
She said that ported football remains relatively new and there are certain adjustments, with adjustments to lessen slide tackles and physical contact in the game to reduce the risk of injury.
The stage is set! Tuesday's live draw revealed the group for the first time ever ported Football World Cup 2024. The top two teams in each group will advance to the knockout round for a shot in the World Cup champion title. Get ready for a 10-day grand celebration. #TFWC2024 pic.twitter.com/s2vpb1z4jh
– wtgf (@wtgf1) August 29, 2024
That said, her team is thrown into a highly competitive group with the Host Nations in Italy, Australia, Chile and Spain.
“The only reason we're all 15 of us together is because we had a heart, liver and kidney transplant,” she said.
“We all come from very different backgrounds and social circles, but we all have special bonds.
“That's because we were given a second chance from people who donate organs.”
David had his transplant five years ago. A few months after the doctor told him he had “90-year-old blood.”
“I was playing football on a Friday night and was really twitching. I thought it was getting older and trying to catch up with the younger people,” he said.
With only 8% kidney function, he was said to have probably lived with kidney failure for years.
Hoping to wait up to four years without a living kidney donor, he was surprised how many people offered, including mothers and friends whom he had never seen in 15 years.
Four months later, he was called to be informed of the donor who had passed away at 2am.
“All I was told was that it was an 18-year-old girl from England and had to come to the hospital right away,” he said.
While waiting for his match was relatively quick, he said that mental tension was worse than his physical symptoms.
“You're going through the struggles you think death could be an option if the donor doesn't come quickly enough,” he said.
“Obviously, it affects your family. My wife and children were having a terrible time with it.
“It just absolutely affects everything you do. People are treating you differently. You just want to get back to some sort of normalcy.”
Just as the hope it offers players, he hopes the Transplant World Cup will encourage more people to consider donating.
“I now realize that people shouldn't be afraid of transplants. They don't use anyone with a fundamental illness and make sure they are fully compatible,” he said.
“The best checks are being made and I don't think that is fully said.
“My brother wasn't tested (as a potential match) for what I call Dr. Google. You can read the most negative things online and it takes people off.
“But I have many families now that have themselves on the family register.”
