A group of young athletes will board a plane tonight bound for Australia to compete in international athletic games. And these kids have quite a unique story to tell. They have all had an organ transplant at The Hospital for Sick Children.

After months of training and fundraising, Team SickKids will meet up at the Los Angeles airport and will travel to Australia’s Gold Coast to take part in the 2009 World Transplant Games. This 25-member national team of heart, lung, liver and kidney transplant patients will compete against other patients from multiple countries in Olympic-like games from August 22 to 30.

This is the team’s second appearance at the games. In 2007, 17 heart transplant patients brought home 38 medals from the games held in Bangkok, Thailand.

This year, these young athletes will participate in events like ball throw, bowling, track and field, badminton, tennis, swimming, table tennis, cycling and golf. The majority of the team members come from Ontario but some hail from Nova Scotia, Manitoba and British Columbia. Their ages range from eight to 18.

The World Transplant Games welcomes more than 1,500 athletes from 60 countries who participate in more than 50 events. Athletes range in age from four to 80. Each competitor is alive and well as a result of a successful organ transplant.

Our own Lisa Charendoff, manager of the SickKids Ambassador Program, will travel with the kids and a film crew to Australia. The crew will be filming a documentary about Team SickKids at the Transplant Games.

Stay tuned to this blog for updates and video clips from Lisa. We may even have some guest blogs from the kids participating in the games!

To see profiles of the athletes, blog entries, medal results and to leave a message for our Team SickKids, please click here.