Lisburn man gives the ultimate gift of life through selfless act of kindness

Transcript

00:01I'm a regular blood donor and it was at one of the sessions that I've seen the leaflet about organ donation.

00:06So I assumed it was what most people would think, it's only when you've passed.

00:10But when I've seen you could do living donation, that piqued my interest.

00:13People keep saying, is it a hard decision? I meant, for me it was easy.

00:16And the fact that it wasn't to a family member, that was one of the questions,

00:21because you have to do, as well as the medical test, you have to go see a psychologist.

00:25And when she asked me, why do you want to do it? And then I couldn't give her an answer.

00:30I just said, because I can. And she said I had to go away and think about it and then get back to her about it.

00:36But it was just saying to her, if I'm able to do it, then why not? That was my thought process.

00:42It's giving someone a second chance, which I didn't think about until meeting up with the TransplantSport NI

00:48and seeing what some of those people were going through.

00:50And that's when it dawned on me, this is what it's about.

00:54It's the second chance at life, because that's what a lot of people were saying.

00:57It was contacting TransplantSport NI and getting involved with them.

01:02And when at first, I thought it was just like a social thing and everybody just got together.

01:07And when they started doing training, it was like, we're all here for medals.

01:11It was brilliant. Dresden was brilliant.

01:13I think we might have been the loudest supported team.

01:15There was 27 of us went. There was 22 recipients and five live donors.

01:19And there were some family members and friends over too.

01:22And the experience was unbelievable. I can't wait for two years' time for Belgium.

01:25I thought it was just going to be a social thing, but it is like a community.

01:28The team, we finished 11th out of 51 countries, which is unbelievable.

01:33I thought it was easy, where people go, it can't be easy, but I could do it.

01:37And one of the questions was, but what if one of your family members needs it in the future?

01:40And I said, there's so many what ifs.

01:42So that's why I thought I would, if I could do it when I was sort of young and healthy, then why not?

01:46The lady that I gave to, her family couldn't give to her, so they had promised to give.

01:50So my donation kicked off three other pools in a pool.

01:53It's seeing the team, and like I said before, about, they've been given a second chance.

01:57When you see, say at like a swimming pool, and you see some of the scars from operating people,

02:03where it's been hurt in their lungs, and then that's when it hit home at the games.

02:06It's like, these people have had a second chance, and this is what they're doing, they're going to use it.