SA man (80) heads for World Transplant Games
He’s 80 and he’s had a heart transplant but that isn’t stopping superfit Johan from heading to an international athletics tournament
IT’S just before 9am on a mercifully cool, overcast day in the Mother City and an athlete is warming up at the Bellville Athletics Stadium, the hulking presence of Table Mountain visible through the mist in the distance. The man’s movements are those of a robust guy in the prime of his life. It’s only when you get closer that you see the signs of age on his body and face.
“Come on, guys, twice more around the track to warm up,” he eggs on the other runners.
The saying “you’re only as old as you feel” perfectly applies to 80-year-old Johan Roos.
But he has another reason for being so determined to keep at it on the track. Each aching muscle, every gasp of breath is a celebration of a second chance for Johan. Nineteen years ago he was at death’s door before a heart transplant saved his life.
Now, against all odds, he’s headed for the World Transplant Games in Newcastle, England, in August.
Johan will compete in five events: javelin, discus, shot put, cricket-ball throw and pétanque, a French sport similar to bowls.
As he warms up, several young disabled athletes arrive to train with their trainer, Mogamat Zain Lamara. The retired teacher from Belgravia, Cape Town, has taken Johan and about 12 youngsters from special-needs schools under his wing.
“Johan works hard. He even trains over weekends when we’re not here,” Mogamat says. “He’s as much an inspiration to young people as they are to him,”
He’s been helping Johan with strength training and technique since the elderly athlete qualified for the games in August last year.
“People his age don’t have much fat or muscle on their legs. As you age, you tend to lose balance and self-confidence,” Mogamat says.
The regime is clearly working. As we chat to Mogamat, Johan – who trains here for two hours every day – runs up and down the steps of the stands. Then it’s up and down the grass embankment surrounding the track.
Johan motions to 16-year-old Nabeel Odendaal when he takes a break. “This is my best training buddy,” he says.
Nabeel’s hands are malformed because of a genetic condition but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming the multiple SA record holder in the F45 class in shot put, discus and javelin events in the under-16, -18 and -20 age groups.
We also meet wheelchair-bound Jonathan Swanepoel (21), an SA discus champ, as well as Fundile Nomtfhonganan, a shot putter who seems unfazed by his deformed legs and crutches. The young athletes all admire Johan. “He’s fit and works hard,” Nabeel says. And the words are barely out of the teenager’s mouth before Johan has sprinted off again.
JOHAN has faced many challenges over the years. In 1998 a heart attack nearly claimed his life. He was 61 when he had a heart transplant – a procedure usually performed on younger patients. In 2009 he lost his wife, Dorothy (70), to cancer. Later he lost his life’s savings after investing in a pyramid scheme.
The latest blow came last year when the kitchen of his home was destroyed in a fire caused by an electrical fault. He and his second wife, Laura (70), were away at the time.
But, he says, he uses these setbacks as motivation to perform well in the upcoming games.
“That second chance I got with my transplant wasn’t given to me just so I could continue plodding along, but rather to live to the full and make the most of each day,” he says.
By now Johan is sweating and out of breath but there’s still a full hour’s training ahead and he isn’t about to give up.
“I’m proof that medical science can help us to live our best life into ripe old age,” he says.
Before the transplant he’d been gravely ill. In September 1998 he developed cardiomyopathy and his heart started failing. Doctors gave him at most 10 months to live.
“I had this constant feeling of doom. I was weak, out of breath,” he recalls.
On 6 November that year he got the call to say a donor heart was available. “I remember the Springboks were playing the All Blacks,” he says.
The next day he was wheeled into the operating theatre at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
“I woke up after the operation with a feeling of vibrancy. I recovered quickly and decided to start walking as exercise. I had renewed energy.”
He’s not a natural athlete, Johan says. “At school, when the teachers saw me pitching up for sports, they’d say, ‘The library’s over there!’
“But I’ve decided to prove that 80-yearolds still have a contribution to make; that they have the willpower to reach their goals.”
When he first heard of the Transplant Games he was determined to compete. By that stage he’d found out about the Transplant Games Association of South Africa (TGASA), but he was too shy to sign up. Instead, he started training twice a week on his own at Durbanville High School’s soccer pitch. He’d use a broomstick as a javelin and a brick for shot put because he couldn’t afford proper equipment.
In November 2017 a newspaper carried an article about Johan’s training and soon afterwards donors bought him a javelin, shot put and discus. Another Good Samaritan has been paying his membership fees at Bellville Athletics Club.
Johan’s progress has been nothing short of astounding and when he qualified for the Games, TGASA hired Mogamat to train him.
“I believe he’ll do well and bring home at least one medal,” Mogamat says of his oldest charge.
O FF the track Johan leads an active life with his twinkletoed second wife, Laura, whom he married three years ago and who’s got him into dancing. She’s a teacher at St Mary’s Primary School in Cape Town, while Johan is retired after 30 years as a municipal manager.
“She has natural rhythm,” Johan says. “I couldn’t dance at all but I had the energy for it. The two of us now have a reputation for dancing young couples under the table. We dance at weddings, at events with friends and at church.”
And Mogamat says dancing is exactly what has helped Johan as an athlete.
“He uses those turning motions. With discus older people are usually afraid of making a full turn because of the balance required.”
When Johan isn’t dancing or training, he’s working on a book of life lessons he’s learnt – including the miracle of second chances.
“There’s a huge shortage of organ donors and I want to encourage people to be generous,” he explains.
Although Johan still has a fair bit of money to raise before he can attend the Games, he hopes his dream will come true.
And on 7 September, two weeks after the Games, he’ll blow out 81 candles on his birthday cake – with, if all goes well, a mantelpiece full of medals behind him.