Competitors from West Wales have returned home with medals from the British Transplant Games in Oxford.
Sophie May Dearman, 29, from Llandeilo and Carl Jones, 44, from Carmarthen, were among more than 22 competitors that made up the Wales adult squad at the four-day competition. There also seven junior competitors, five living donors and over 30 passionate supporters.
The Wales team certainly made a mark and brought home 46 medals in total – 15 bronze, 15 silver and 16 gold.
It was Sophie’s sixth time taking part in the games – where every competitor has had a transplant, ranging from kidneys, pancreas, heart, bone marrow and stem cells.
Sophie’s own pancreas transplant saved her life more than a decade ago.
Sophie is the adult team manager for Tim Trawsblaniad Cymru. Following brain surgery earlier this year to help manage a condition called trigeminal neuralgia, she has nerve damage in one of her arms so was not able to compete in her usual sports. Still wanting to compete, she decided to try a new sport – the Ball Throw – in which she won a silver medal.
She said: “From archery to cycling, and from the swimming pool to the football field, our athletes showcased incredible skill and determination over four action-packed days. But beyond the medals lies something even more profound. Tim Trawsblaniad Cymru is about family. It’s about the unbreakable bond we share as a team. It’s about celebrating the power of organ donation and the lives it transforms. Every moment spent together at the games was a testament to resilience, hope, and the endless possibilities that lie ahead for those touched by donation. Thank you to everyone who joined us on this journey, showing the world what determination and teamwork can achieve. Let’s continue to inspire and uplift one another as we spread the message of organ donation far and wide.”
Sophie May Dearman (Image: Tim Trawsblaniad Cymru)
For Sophie, her transplant operation came in 2013, when she became the youngest pancreas transplant recipient in the UK.
She has a form of type 1 diabetes known as brittle diabetes which means controlling her blood sugar levels has been that much harder than it is for others with the chronic condition.
Coupled with other medical complications Sophie is reliant on a wheelchair.
She has hypermobility syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome, functional neurological disorder, non-epileptic seizure disorder and trigeminal neuralgia.
Between the ages of 11 and 13, Sophie was taken to A&E an astounding 187 times. Without urgent treatment from doctors during each visit, her vital organs would have shut down and she would have died.
At 15, she was the only person in the UK living on an intravenous insulin infusion 24 hours a day, seven days a week at home – a situation she lived with for 18 months.
Despite everything she has endured, she has always been determined not to let her complicated conditions define her.
For Carl Jones the games were his third and once again he was was in goal for the Wales football team, with the side taking home a bronze medal. He also competed in ten pin Bowling.
Carl was born with a rare kidney disease called Alport Syndrome, which eventually caused his kidneys to go into renal failure in 2004 at the age of 23.
He was was put onto dialysis and had his first simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant in November 2005, which failed in 2006. He then had to have a second transplant in 2008.
Carl Jones (Image: Tim Trawsblaniad Cymru)
Carl pictured third from left on the back row with the Wales football team at the games (Image: Tim Trawsblaniad Cymru)
Hawys Richards (Image: Tim Trawsblaniad Cymru)
The Wales team at the Transplant Games in Oxford (Image: Tim Trawsblaniad Cymru)
He was joined on the football team at the games by James Murphy from Swansea. James also competed in high jump, long jump and track relay, winning gold, silver and bronze respectively.
Also competing was Hawys Richards from near Lampeter in Ceredigion. Hawys competed in archery, cycling, swimming (25m Freestyle and the swim relay) and shot putt, winning medals in every event. While her mum Nia competed in the Living donor archery section, 25m swim and ball throw events.
Hawys was 12-years-old when she was diagnosed with stage five chronic kidney disease in 2020. After being on a home dialysis machine for nearly a year, she received a kidney from her mother at the end of 2021.
She and her family are now heading to Dresden, Germany where Hawys is representing the UK at the World Transplant Games between August 17 and 24.
