Star graduate calls for more awareness and funding for transplant athletes

Although the British Transplant Games largely aim to display the positives of transplantation, they also help to increase public awareness of the need for more people to join the NHS Organ Donation Register and discuss their wishes with their families. 

Lucy, a recent graduate of our BA Theatre and Performance Practice programme and the winner of the Dean's Award at the 2025 Create Student Awards, has participated in the British Transplant Games since 1994, just two years after undergoing open heart surgery as a toddler.

Now Lucy is calling for more awareness of the games in the hope that they might reach a similar status to the Paralympic games, with a similar level of commercialisation and funding, as the games are currently run by the charity, Transplant Sport. 

She said: “We have volunteers who will do press and NHS Blood and Transplant will do their bit, but it's very much volunteer-led, and we do not necessarily have loads of paid people to do the press and the media and I think sometimes that's a missed opportunity.

“The athletes and the transplant families are doing amazing work raising awareness, and they're all doing it in their local areas, which is great, but I think maybe having, like, an overarching mainstream media, like a dedicated team, would be great as well.”

At 18, Lucy made the decision to start competing as an adult in race walking, and this weekend, she will be representing Team GB for the second time in the global edition. Ahead of the competition, Lucy spoke about how the games can act as a motivation for people in recovering after receiving a transplant, and who may be struggling to find quality in their lives. 

She said: “I will be running against people in the 100m, and they literally couldn't walk 10 minutes out of bed the year before, before they had their transplant, you know?

“I think it is a motivation, especially for the people who are in hospital, maybe waiting for a transplant, because I've chatted to some of them, and they’ve said now they’ve got a goal to work towards.”

The Transplant Games can act as a gateway for some individuals to reclaim the momentum and movement they may have lost in their lives. However, for Lucy, she has often dealt with the problems that come with a transplant, after receiving heart transplant surgery when she was only two years old. 

Lucy was first brought into Great Ormond Street Hospital to repair a leaky valve when she was a newborn, which then led to the other valve breaking. Her parents then opted for open-heart surgery, a new and untried method, which had only been pioneered in the UK five years prior. Looking back, Lucy said she was very lucky to survive so many paediatric surgeries at only two years old.

She added: “You are probably getting another child's heart as well. So it's very fortunate, you know, for a family to say yes to donation when they've unexpectedly lost a child… I was really lucky.”

Each year, they are hosted in a different city in the United Kingdom. Last week, at the British Transplant Games, Lucy’s hospital team at the Royal Papworth won the best heart and lung team trophy in Oxford. Now, Lucy will be jetting off to Dresden where competitors have been selected from across the UK based on their performance, to compete against 45 other countries. Lucy will be competing in the race walk, 100m sprint, ball throw and 100m relay. 

Whilst the transplant patients are urged to train for these games, participation does require a clinical letter from your doctor to say you are healthy enough to compete. Competitors are encouraged to take the race at their own pace and not push themselves too far. 

Lucy said: “Last week, it was someone's first games, and he did the 5k walk, and he just did it at his own pace. So for the last two laps, I think he was the only person doing it. Loads of our team went and walked with him for the last couple of laps, and, the whole stadium cheered when he finished.” 

At last week’s British Transplant Games, a donor run was organised at Blenheim Palace that 2200 people took part in, all raising awareness of organ donation and transplantation and money for charities. 

Lucy said: “It helps people have that conversation. You know, it's not a very nice topic to talk about ‘Oh If I die unexpectedly, this is what I want to happen…’ But sadly, I was with hundreds of people last weekend, because that is what has happened to someone.”

According to the NHS Blood and Transplant department, 7966 people are waiting for a transplant in the UK. However, only around 1 in 100 people who die in the UK are usually able to become donors.

She said: "It'd be really nice if we get to the stage of Paralympic status, because we have donor families come along, which is amazing, and they say it's really helped them to kind of see what their loved ones have done, you know, because they can see these people have got a second chance at life.”

As there’s no funding available for athletes competing in the World Transplant Games, Lucy relies on local sponsorship and fundraising from her JustGiving page. This allows Lucy to pay for her travels, and also focus on her training. Without additional funding, Lucy is expected to pay for her expenses in order to attend, as well as any medical support and insurance that she may need. 

She added: “I just think [the athletes are] amazing. Like, you know, these are people are performing really well, and you think about the amount of trauma their body's been through, I just think it's phenomenal.”

So far, Lucy has raised over half of her goal for the World Transplant Games, but she will still be accepting donations during and after the event. All additional proceeds will go towards Transplant Sport, a charity dedicated to promoting active recovery for transplant recipients through sports and raising awareness about organ donation.