OVER 1,500 athletes will be pushing themselves to the limit as the British Transplant Games come to Coventry this weekend.
The Games will get under way tomorrow and last until Sunday, with transplanted athletes from across the UK competing in over 25 sporting events.
Now in its 45th year, the Games aim to raise awareness of the life-saving benefits of organ donation while encouraging those who have had a transplant to stay active afterwards.
Athletes aged between three to over 80 will be representing one of more than 50 hospital teams across the UK.
Organisers Westfield Health has predicted this year’s event to be the second biggest Games yet.
Coventry’s British Transplant Games was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 but was cancelled due to the pandemic.
The city previously held the event in 2009.
Around 7,000 people across the UK were still waiting for an organ transplant as of April, including 200 children.
Someone dies every day in the UK while in need of an organ transplant due to a lack of donors.
The Games will also look to highlight the COxNet scheme, launched last year, which allows kidney transplant patients in Coventry and Oxford to travel between the two cities for surgeries.
This allows Coventry patients to benefit from Oxford’s shorter waiting times.
