Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Games gain star supporter
Countdownisontotransplantevent
Snooker star John Higgins is the latest supporter to get behind the British Transplant Games, taking place in North Lanarkshire next month.
The four-time world champion met some of the competitors as part of the countdown to the multi-sport event, which will bring nearly 800 transplant athletes and 2000 supporters to the area.
He said: “The Games are a fantastic opportunity to encourage people to join the organ donor register – almost 7000 people in the UK are waiting for an organ donation, so please join the register and help save a life.
“In some ways, snooker is the ideal transplant sport because it offers athletes gentle exercise in a very social environment.
“Athletes and their families will tell you that the Games are an opportunity to get together and share their stories, and where better than around the snooker table?”
The Westfield Health Games, which will begin with an opening ceremony at Summerlee, will run from July 2730 across North Lanarkshire and will showcase 20 different sports.
Lanarkshire will have its own team for the first time – including Coatbridge teenager Joe Allan, a pupil at Buchanan High, who had a lifesaving kidney transplant in 2012 and who won 50m relay gold and 5k silver at last year’s Games in Liverpool.
The Transplant Games aim to encourage patients to regain fitness and increase awareness of the need for more people to register as organ donors and discuss their wishes.
North Lanarkshire Games chair Jim McCabe says local registration has reached record levels.
The former council leader said: “The area has seen a boost to numbers on the organ donor register, with a record 124,559 people currently registered in North Lanarkshire.
“Each year sees around 30 people in our area receiving an organ; and there are currently 52 people in North Lanarkshire waiting for a transplant.
“In the past year, 6000 people have registered, but more needs to be done. We hope that everybody will consider signing up to the register at www.organdonationscotland.org.”