It is day three of the World Transplant Games in Australia and Team SickKids already has so much to cheer about. Canada won its first medal on Sunday and more on Monday.
Here’s a day-by-day updated from the Foundation’s Lisa Charendoff, who is with the young athletes in Australia:
Saturday, August 22: Team SickKids is staying in condos right across the street from a gorgeous beach with beautiful soft sand. The team’s physiotherapists, Robin and Vanessa, led the athletes in an early morning stretch on the beach with the ocean in the background. Later in the afternoon, all of Team Canada (adults and kids) met and shared their names, their transplant and their hometown.
There were two exciting things to celebrate after the introductions: An adult team member proposed to his girlfriend on the beach in the morning (she accepted) and one of the Team Canada athletes, Dylan, celebrated his birthday with delicious birthday cake.
Sunday, August 23: Morning began early. We cheered on several Canadian adult athletes in the 3k road race and Canada won its first silver medal!
Following the road race, 3,000 people participated in a walk along the beach entitled “Start the Conversation,” pushing giant beach balls. The objective was for transplant recipients, donor families and local citizens to walk and talk about the importance of organ donation. The weather couldn’t have been better. It was an awe-inspiring sight to see so many people talking about organ donation.
Sunday afternoon, Team SickKids put Canadian flag tattoos and other Canadian symbols on their hands, necks and faces in preparation for the opening ceremonies. What a thrilling moment it was to see the Canadian team march in. Canada has the third largest team of all 49 countries participating, behind Australia and the United Kingdom.
Monday, August 24: Very exciting news today. Team SickKids won several medals in bowling. Go team! The Canadian volleyball team, including Dawn Oldnall and Katie Sutherland from SickKids, played six close games and wound up in sixth place overall.
Listening to the stories of the SickKids families, hearing their gratitude to their donor families and being surrounded by so many people who have received transplants is a life-changing experience.
To see more photos, please visit our Flickr account. If you’d like to send Team SickKids a message or view the medal count, click here.