The Team

Paul Harden was inspired to go into transplant medicine when he looked after a young trainee lawyer who’s life was transformed by a successful transplant. Whilst a Consultant Nephrologist in Stoke-on-Trent he was greatly impressed by the enthusiasm and peer support of the Stoke Transplant Games team. This led to a successful four-year campaign to host the Transplant Games in North Staffordshire in 2003. We still think the Gala Dinner at Alton Towers and Keele Hall in 2003 is the one to beat; with Nemesis, fireworks and an all night paper casino on the menu.

 

Since 2003 in Oxford, he has built up a cutting edge young adult transplant service and regards Transplant Sport events as key opportunities to foster invaluable peer support and regain individual self esteem. He was delighted to become a Trustee of TS in 2011 and provide ongoing medical support to Team Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the European and World Transplant Games.

 

 

My interest in transplantation started when I was a junior fellow working in Kings College Hospital, London in 1975 and work with the Cambridge/Kings transplant programme. My interest in transplantation remained when I moved to Birmingham. I have been Associate Medical Director for Organ Donation and Transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant for 6 years until I went part time back in Birmingham. I have had a major research interest in transplantation and was an editor of the journal Transplantation for 10 years and am currently Chair of SaBTO, the multi-professional group that advises all UK ministers on the safety of organs for transplantation. I have seen at first hand how the procedure has changed from a high risk experimental procedure to a routine procedure as well as the fantastic outcomes not only for the recipients and their families but also the donor families. I have also seen how the shortage of organs impacts on so many people. Working with Transplant Sport provides a great opportunity to raise awareness of organ donation and so increase transplant rates as well as celebrate donors and recipients.

David Nix retired from the police force in 1997 after 30 years service. He then started his own company “Scanix”, moving hundreds of articulated lorries and rigids around the country.

 

David has 2 children, Rebecca and Stuart. In November 1996 his daughter Rebecca who was working in Connecticut USA as an Au Pair was involved in a serious road traffic collision. She died at the scene but was able to donate her eyes, heart valves, bone, skin and tissue improving the quality of life for 74 people.

Following Rebecca’s tragic death David and his wife Jane decided in 1997 to form a local support group to support other families in similar situations. In 2003 the growth in membership across the UK meant the group needed to register as a charity. This became the Donor Family Network (DFN) with David as the Chairman.

As he had links with Transplant Co-ordinators in Birmingham, when the British Transplant Games came to Birmingham in 1999 he and Jane were asked to attend. In 2000 the Games were held in Newcastle and the Donor Bus which was owned by Bill Essex a former Transplant co-ordinator who used the bus to take kidney patients on holiday, was ‘sold’ to DFN for £1. For many years the bus travelled around the country for 2 weeks prior to the Transplant games signing people up to the organ donor register.
In 2005 David was awarded the MBE for services to charity both abroad and in this country.