AFTER suffering organ failure and going through the experience of a transplant many people would be happy to take a well-earned rest.

But Horspath man Steve Whelan turned to athletics to keep fit after his liver transplant.

Twelve years later he has picked up gold and silver medals in the Transplant and Dialysis Games.

Now the athlete is backing the Oxford Mail’s campaign asking people to give the gift of life this Christmas by signing up to the organ donor register.

The 53-year-old executive coach had a liver transplant in 2000 after contracting a water-born infection during a trip to South America, which was exacerbated by a fall in the bathroom.

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He said: “My liver went into meltdown and I went from a perfectly functioning liver to one at 10 per cent capacity.

“When the doctors concluded their analysis they said I should have been unconscious.”

Mr Whelan received a liver just nine days after his diagnosis when a Nottinghamshire man called Richard collapsed while playing football and died from a brain haemorrhage.

Soon after the transplant keen sportsman Mr Whelan started to get involved with athletics again and got involved with the Transplant Games movement.

It caters for athletes who cannot compete in normal competition due to the drugs they use to regulate their new organs.

These drugs are banned in most sports because they could be used by people trying to cheat the system.

After taking part in a number of competitions he won 5km walking silver in the European Transplant and Dialysis Games in 2012 and 2014 and snow-shooting gold in the World Winter Transplant and Dialysis Games in 2014.

He said the transplant had not only given him the gift of life but had allowed him to seal international sporting glory.

He is urging readers to sign up to the donor register.

He said: “The probability is that you are more likely to need a transplant than to donate so it is in everyone’s self-interest really.

“The reality is that 3,000 or more people die each and every year through the lack of organs being available and their deaths are unnecessary.

“Also, in terms of my personal experience, I have spent 14 years writing to the family of my donor.

“His death was unpreventable and inevitable and that is shocking and tragic.

“In that really dark moment his family made that choice and generosity of goodwill to save someone else’s life.”

SIGN UP FOR THE GIFT OF LIFE

The Oxford Mail is asking you to give someone the most precious of gifts this Christmas.

Your help could save the life of one of any of the 51 people in the county waiting for a donor.

We are backing the Life Saver campaign to get more people to sign up to become organ donors, after it was revealed less than half the people of Oxfordshire are registered.

The organ donor register is free to join online, on the phone, or by text. Visit organdonation.nhs.uk, call 0300 123 23 23 or text save to 62323.

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