Bury St Edmunds’ Libby Elsey wins gold and silver at British Transplant Games for Nottingham Children’s Hospital

Bury St Edmunds’ Libby Elsey returned from the 2024 British Transplant Games with a gold medal in archery and a silver in badminton.

While this is the best she has performed at the event, having attended the previous two editions, she is most proud of the medal she received for completing the donor run - a 5km course that everyone (athletes, families and volunteers) takes part in to remember donors, dead or alive. Not a race, but an embodyment of togetherness and unity for a cause that is close to Elsey’s heart.

Elsey, 16, was born 10 weeks premature with kidney disease and spent all her childhood years in and out of hospital. When she was 12, her condition got worse and she was put on a waiting list for a transplant, something her and her family had not anticipated would happen until her adult years.

Doctors told her she might need to be put on dialysis which would limit her life expectancy to five-10 years if she was unable to get the transplant quickly, but, after an agonising 10-month wait, Elsey’s family received the best phone call of their lives in August 2021 - alerting them that there was a transplant available at Nottingham Children’s Hospital.

The former Thurston Community College pupil was at a sleepover at the time but was more than happy to make the journey north at 6am.

And just four hours later, she had the transplant. Nottingham was loosely associated with Elsey’s family as her father, Glenn, is a lifelong Nottingham Forest fan, but now she is tied to the city forever.

“If I wasn’t to have the transplant, I would have been very ill, even with the dialysis,” she said.

“Just because you’ve got a kidney disease or a kidney transplant, don’t let it get in the way of what you want to do.

“I’ve still done what I wanted to do and I still am. People don’t have to give up on what they want to do just because of their physical diseases.”

Fittingly, Nottingham hosted this year’s Transplant Games from August 1-4. The event mimics the Olympics, with thousands of people, all whom have received or given a transplant, representing children’s hospitals from across the country in a plethora of sports.

As she was part of the hosting city, Elsey was one of the last people to march out to thousands of cheers at the opening ceremony, held at Nottingham Castle, but the final group to enter the castle grounds were the live donors. The roaring, overwhelmingly emotional reception they received was said to be indescribable.

Elsey raised more than £140 from her donor run, which will go to Kidney Research UK and was proud to play her part in the ‘brilliant event’.

As well as the two sports she won medals in, she also competed in the 100m and 100m mixed relay.

She was keen to stress that the transplant has not solved everything. Elsey has to drink two-and-a-half litres of water a day, take medications at certain times and live knowing that the disease could return if her transplant is rejected by her body.

Glenn stressed how incredibly proud he is of his daughter, highlighting how she has taken ‘everything in her stride’ during a ‘roller-coaster’ journey.

“Although there’s medals to be won, it’s more about the get-together and bringing the transplant family together,” he said.

“The main story is trying to get people to have that conversation with their families about donating their organs.

“There’s quite a high percentage of people who pass away that haven’t told their families they’re going to donate, so they can’t donate without permission.

“Her life would be so much different now if she hadn’t had that transplant.”