It’s been a busy summer for kidney transplantee Adam Hughes from Tenby who followed up winning a silver medal with Wales at the British Transplant Games in July by winning a gold medal with the Great Britain team at the World Transplant Games held at Newcastle/Gateshead in August.

The World Transplant games featured over 2,200 participants from 59 countries from all continents, including China, India, Australia New Zealand, USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya and many European countries amongst them.

This was the first time football has been included in the games alongside the traditional events such as track and field, cycling, swimming, tennis etc. and the British team were delighted to win the inaugural gold medal on home soil beating France, Italy, Finland and then Holland in a closely contested final.

For Adam, who had a kidney transplant in 2014 following total renal failure and then being on dialysis for 10 hours daily, it was a dream come true and after the event he said:

“It was an amazing experience to play alongside so many talented players from all over Britain and bring home the gold medal.

“It is an experience I will never forget and was made even better by receiving a team talk from a childhood hero in Andrew Cole.

“Of course, none of the players competing would be there if it wasn’t for their transplant, and we are all forever grateful to those who have given us a second chance at life.

In the final, GB had taken a lead in the first half, but the keenly contested match remained 1-0 until the dying seconds. With time running out, all the Holland team, including the goalie, piled into the penalty area for a corner, only for the GB goalie to catch the ball and release Adam, who beat off a couple of challenges before shooting from his own half to score the decisive goal and give Great Britain the gold and sparking great celebrations.

The team had met former England, Newcastle and Manchester United striker Andrew Cole in a training session before the games and whilst the team were honoured to be given words of advice from Andrew (who had a kidney transplant in 2015), he in turn was equally inspired by the commitment and dedication of the players who had overcome such adversity in their lives.

That of course was true of all the contestants who ranged from a six-year-old girl from Argentina, competing in ball throw, long jump and 50m sprint to an 84-year-old man from France who unbelievably was contesting in the 30km cycling road race, 50m breaststroke, 400m track AND 1,500m track.

Transplantees taking part included kidney, liver, heart, bone marrow, lung, double lung, heart and lung, pancreas and intestine. None of those taking part would have been able to without the generosity of their donors and the donor families who had given the ‘Gift Of Life’ to them.

Adam would also like to sincerely thank the many friends and family and the Rotary Club of Narberth and Whitland who had contributed to support him to go to the games, and the support Adam received was invaluable in helping to do that.

The next World Transplant Games will be held in Texas in 2021 and Adam will be doing everything he can to remain fit and available for selection to go and defend their title

“Now I will have to postpone my retirement for another two years and turn my attention to trying to make the side for Texas in 2021!” he said!