By Ann Marie Angebrandt
TARNEIT resident Dinesh Perera went to last month’s Australian Transplant Games in Geelong with high expectations.
He left with eight medals, including three gold.
The 28-year-old security guard is now looking forward to continuing his success at the World Transplant Games next year, in Thailand.
“I did better than I expected,” said the father of one, who was diagnosed with multiple myelmoa – a form of leukaemia – only four years ago.
He received a bone marrow transplant from his brother last November and has not looked back since.
Mr Perera won gold medals in his favourite sports of badminton and squash; silver in tennis singles and doubles; and bronze in the five-kilometre road run, and single and quad scull rowing.
Taking part in the Games was his way of showing that “transplant recipients are still normal people”.
The biannual Games brought together about a thousand transplant recipients – adults and children – from across the country, as well as from 10 overseas nations.
Mark Cocks, CEO of Games’ sponsor Transplant Australia, said the event helped raise awareness about the importance of organ and tissue donation.
About 3000 Australian adults and children are now on waiting lists for heart, kidney, lung, liver, pancreas or corneal transplants, he said.
For more information about Transplant Australia, visit www.transplantaustralia.org.au.
