2025 British Transplant Games in Oxford is launched at Blenheim Palace
Oxford is set to host the British Transplant Games for the first time in 2025
The British Transplant Games will welcome over 1,000 transplanted athletes to Oxford and take place at various venues across the county from 31st July to 3rd August 2025.
The event has been launched today at Blenheim Place and it aims to raise awareness of the life-saving benefits of organ donation and encourage transplant recipients to stay active post-transplant.
At the launch was Adam Isaac, 40, who starred in series one of The Voice and was chosen by Tom Jones.
Adam was diagnosed with kidney failure and received a kidney transplant in 2022, after a bandmate he hadn’t seen in 15 years came forward to be a matching donor.
He said: “As soon as I came out of the operation, I could tell it was different already, the energy levels were much higher, and I could do more again.
“I can be fully active and do sports if I wanted to, I can play lots of gigs and perform as much as I used to before I had the kidney troubles, so it’s massive for me.”
"You feel like you belong straight away”
There will be at least 20 different sports on offer, which is more than double the amount planned for the Commonwealth Games that’s moved from Australia to Glasgow.
James Bartlett, 23, had a liver and small bowel transplant in January 2005, and the double transplant was rare at the time, with a 50% three-year survival rate. Since then, he’s represented Team GB in the World Transplant Games and has been competing in the British Transplant Games.
Mr Bartlett will be representing Team Oxford and says, “I can’t wait for it, it’s the best time of the year that I look forward to.”
“A lot of my best friends are people that I’ve met through the games, I feel like it’s one big family and we all know what everyone’s been through so they appreciate that – You feel like you belong straight away.”
Next year’s event follows the success of the European Transplant Games in 2022 that was held in the city.
"You can give life back to people"
Dr Paul Harden, Chair of the 2025 British Transplant Games and Transplant Surgeon in Oxford and says, “organ failure affects quite a significant proportion of the population”.
He added: “Sadly, there are over 7,000 people on the transplant waiting list in the UK and a number of those people are going to die on the waiting list because there aren’t enough organs that are donated.
“We need to get across to the general population how you can change people's lives, the impact it can have, and how you can give life back to people.”