Westport’s Cawley off to Germany for Transplant Games

Cawley off to Games


Neill O’Neill

DARREN CAWLEY from Westport will be one of 24 Irish athletes taking part in the fifth European Transplant and Dialysis Games which kick off next Sunday, August 31, in Wurzburg, Germany.
Darren, who is currently awaiting his second kidney transplant operation, has represented Ireland on previous occasions at similar events around the world. He said one of the main reasons he is participating is to promote the need for organ donation.
“More than anything else, these events are about promoting awareness of the value of organ donation. They play an important role in keeping this very important issue to the forefront of people’s minds,” said Darren, who was one of Ireland’s leading athletes at the World Transplant Games in Japan in 2001, and at subsequent European Games in Hungary and Slovenia. He has won medals at 100m, 200m, and 400m.
The Knockrooskey native has been receiving haemodialysis at Mayo General Hospital three times a week for the past six years. He received his first kidney transplant in 2001, but that failed two years later.
Darren feels that the European Transplant and Dialysis Games promote the idea of healthy living through sport. “It is important for people on dialysis to keep as fit and healthy as possible to ensure that they are in the best shape to handle a transplant operation should an opportunity arise,” he said.