The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
LAHINCH’S Marie O Connor along with 12 other athletes from Dublin, Kildare, Cork, Tipperary, Galway, Clare and Roscommon will participate in The European Transplant and Dialysis Games to be held in Oxford from this Sunday, August 21 until August 28.
The Irish team consists of ten men and three women. There are nine kidney recipients, two liver recipients, one double lung recipient and one person currently on dialysis.
Marie received her kidney in 1998 and it was her second transplant.
Since then she has medalled at several games in countries such as Slovenia, Thailand, Canada and Poland.
“I don’t go to the Games for the Gold medals because I got that when I received my transplant,” she says.
Instead, Marie competes to honour her donor and the donor’s family.
In the UK she will take part in the team and individual Golf competitions, and also in Petanque and 100 metres individual and relay races.
The Irish team recently had their official Team Kit Launch, at which they were addressed by Michael Carruth, who spoke about the passion, drive and unrelenting ambition he had to win an
Olympic medal, something he achieved in 1992.
The Irish team have one request to the public, that they consider carrying an organ donor card.
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
