Particpants who took part in the match
Celebration of life and second chances
The Irish Transplant Football Team played teachers from Kingswood Community College to raise awareness on organ donation among second year students this week.
“The teachers won very comfortably, it was 6-2,” laughed Transplant Football Team player Riyadh Abdelkader (40), from Old Bawn, who is currently on a waiting list for a kidney transplant.
Nonetheless, the main ‘goal’ was to show young people how transplants can change and save lives, marking Organ Donation week on the Kilnamanagh AFC pitch.
“Except me, all the team members had transplants,” explained Riyadh.
“John Brennan had two, a heart and a kidney transplant. He said to the students, ‘If he wasn’t for someone donating their organs, I would be dead now.’
“Another mate had a double lung transplant. The students had a lot of questions, and they were very interested about it. We are planning to arrange talks in schools for the future, in Tallaght and the rest of the county.”
At least 50 people including students and the players’ families and friends attended the game on Tuesday, May 13.
The team also gave teachers 300 organ donor cards to provide to fifth- and sixth-year students should they be ready to register for it.
“When we were young, we weren’t really paying attention to these things,” said Riyadh, who was diagnosed with an end-stage kidney failure at 23.
Students and players’ families attended the game
“It was a total shock to me, I was fit and healthy, didn’t drink or smoke. That’s why I feel you have to be very aware regardless.”
Riyadh got his first kidney transplant in 2010, but his body rejected it five years later and he has been receiving dialysis three or four times a week ever since, besides being treated with medication.
“It’s not easy, but you can’t let it take over your life. You have to be there for your family.
“I play padel and football every week and I manage my company. If we want to go on holidays, we have to plan it according to when and where I can get dialysis.”
With his younger sister stepping forward for the donor-recipient ‘swap’ available in Belfast under the UK health system, Riyadh will know if the pair found a match next July.
“We’re still hoping,” he said.
In the meantime, being part of the Transplant Football Team has given him “a little community and a support group where I know I can always vent my frustration.
“My friends and family are amazing, but my teammates get me because they have been through it too.
“We also want to show everyone that being sick is not the end of the world, and that your life isn’t over.”
On their Instagram page, the team said the match was “a celebration of life, second chances, and the amazing impact of organ donation.”
On behalf of the team, Riyadh thanked Kilnamanagh AFC Chairman John Mackin for “very generously giving us the pitch for the cause,” and Ciaran Walsh and the other teachers from Kingswood Community College for helping set up the match and raising awareness among their students.
