Jennifer Tuohy from Scariff and Marie O’Connor from Lahinch were part of the Irish Team competing at the 16th World Transplant Games that took place in Bangkok from Saturday, August 24th until Sunday, September 2nd.

Barmaid Marie O’Connor won two gold medals for golf, two silver medals for 200m track and squash and a bronze for the 100m.

Jennifer Tuohy, who lives in Fossabeg, won a bronze medal in the ten-pin bowling.
Their superb effort of both added to the haul of 39 medals won by the Irish team, which was their best ever performance at a World Games.

Marie was given a kind gift from a stranger to ensure she made it to Bangkok. “A man I had never met before promised to give me €1,000 towards my sponsorship of the games. I thought he was only joking, but sure enough the cheque arrived in the post,” said the 39 year-old, who works part-time in world-famous O’Connor’s Bar, Doolin.

Marie underwent her second kidney transplant in 1998 after an unsuccessful transplant in 1996. “I was quite competitive before I got sick. I played football and camogie. When the doctors said I said I couldn’t play contact sport I was devastated,” said Marie.

“But my motto in life is that you don’t give up. I started to play golf and I really enjoy it.

“The dialysis is tough but you get used to it, it becomes a part of your life.”

“People are forgetting about the here and now, but it is so important, that’s why I live for the moment,” added Marie.

Irish team manager Colin White was at the Games. “The consensus is that these were the most competitive World Transplant Games ever, and it is very encouraging that Ireland managed to increase its medal haul. Ireland has never broken the 30-medal mark before and hopefully this will mark the start of an era when more and more Irish people with transplants will take part in sport,” he said.

“One of the main purposes of the Games is to show that people with transplants can go on to lead full and healthy lives. Anyone who witnessed the standard of competition here in Bangkok would have been left in no doubt about that.”