LIAM Patterson will be one of the West Cork men flying this region’s flag at the upcoming European Transplant Football Championships in Oxford.
The Ballinacarriga man, now living in Limerick, recently captained the Transplant Sport Ireland football team in their first international friendly, a 2-1 win against Northern Ireland in Dublin.
Three other West Cork men were involved – Mike Keohane from Rosscarbery, who is also on the Transplant Sport Ireland committee, as well as Patrick O’Driscoll of Ahiohill and Val Weblin from Drimoleague.
‘This team is new. The philosophy would be honouring our donors and raising organ donation awareness, which is huge. It varies year to year on the number of organs available in regards to heart, liver and kidneys,’ explained Patterson, who had a liver transplant in 2022.
‘It is really for people that have got their lives back to normal or at least to a large degree. It is about the donors and their families. That is at the heart of what Transplant Sport Ireland wants to try to do.’
On the Ireland Transplant team, he said: ‘People play when they can. Even in training sessions, if someone is feeling tired at training or their energy levels are low, you pull out. You do as much as you can and if it’s too much, it’s too much. We’re not your average football team.’
The process of returning to sport after a transplant is a victory in itself. For Patterson, it took a while to get back into the swing of things but the biggest challenge was the transplant journey.
‘I was sick for a long time with it. It came to a head six or seven months previous to that,’ he explained.
‘Obviously, after a transplant there is the whole rehabilitation. It is tough going, I won’t lie. It’s tough beforehand when you are very ill and you are just praying that you will get on a transplant list and you are doing a battery of tests for weeks.
‘A lot of people don’t make it sadly and die while they are waiting for a possible match. After a transplant, you spend weeks in the hospital. For me it was three and a half weeks.
‘Once you are home, they encourage you to do as much walking as you are able to. That was very difficult at the start. We are lucky to have a dog in the house and he loves to get out. I was back jogging and running in about five to six months but everyone is different. Some people may be ready in three. Some might be a whole year before attempting it.’
The inaugural European Transplant Football Championships in Oxford (April 2nd to 6th), the British Transplant Games in Oxford (July 31st to August 3rd) and the World Transplant Games in Dresden (August 17th to 24th) are all targets for the year ahead.
‘I went to Nottingham last year for my first British Transplant Games and I really enjoyed that; I did a bit of athletics there too. There are so many people out there who are celebrating life that they didn’t think they’d get a chance at – that is the bottom line,’ Patterson added.
