Life-saving transplant done, next goal gold
Kiwi cycling star Justin Grace is on a mission to win gold at the World Transplant Games — almost three years after receiving a life-saving liver transplant.
Grace won 13 national track titles and raced for New Zealand at the 2002 Manchester and 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games before switching to coaching.
He mentored Great Britain medalwinners at the 2016 Rio Olympics and made it to Rio despite being in poor health as he battled primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease where the liver’s bile ducts become blocked. He was diagnosed with the condition as a teen and it is linked to bowel disease, which he had lifesaving surgery for in his mid-20s.
The magnitude of the liver illness was revealed on return from Rio; results of blood tests taken there showed he might have just six months to live without a transplant.
Based in Manchester with his family, the 48-year-old father of two juggles coaching Great Britain’s Olympic cyclists with his training, and volunteer work raising awareness for organ transplant charities and Britain’s National Health System.
Grace said the reality of his health battle kicked in while he was filling out pre-transplant forms with his wife.
One document asked for a reason for the transplant — his doctor had written “dead in six months”.
“Up until then my wife had been okay, but that was the point where it really hit her hard,” he said.
Despite having some days when he thought “I don’t want to be this person”, he recognised he was luckier than others, and wanted to use his profile to raise awareness and improve the donor system.
“Campaigns about speaking to your family and letting them know your wishes is probably one of the fastest ways to grow organ donation anywhere.”
He was stoked to be getting back on his bike more frequently as he geared up for the World Transplant
It’s up and down. That’s just the life of a transplant patient. Justin Grace
Games in Newcastle in August.
The biennial games feature 16 sports, including football, cycling, track and field, tennis and swimming.
Grace made his return to competitive cycling at the 2017 British Transplant Games, gaining a fifth-place finish.
“I had actually done very little at all in terms of training — I just got on my bike and rode,” he said.
Heading into these games, he said he was back to riding at between 80-85 per cent of his potential.
“It’s up and down. That’s just the life of a transplant patient; there’s days where you just don’t feel good and you just can’t do stuff.”
Grace’s work for the NHS and with organ transplant charities was something he saw as necessary, to give back to the system that gave him a second chance at life.
He still has to take “handfuls” of pills each day; including immunosuppressants which reduce the body’s chances of rejecting a donated organ.
What many people didn’t know, Grace said, was that a transplant was a treatment, rather than a cure.
The primary concerns were around the lifespan of the organ, the disease coming back, and transplant rejection.
His reasoning for pulling on a blue, red and white jersey as opposed to one bearing the silver fern, was the same.
“If I was in New Zealand and I’d had my transplant in New Zealand, I’d be representing the country, and that would be it,” he said. “I’m still a Kiwi at heart.”
But he said it felt right to honour his donor and help the system, by raising awareness about a desperate need for organ donations.