The brave 21 year-old won a gold medal in ten-pin bowling and a bronze for tennis at the 16th World Transplant Games that took place in Bangkok from Saturday, August 24th until Sunday, September 2nd.

Rachel also competed at the World Games in Canada in 2005 where she picked up two gold medals.
The Meath lady, who celebrated her 21st birthday the weekend before she departed for the Games, received a kidney transplant in June 1996.

“The illness came on suddenly. Within a week I got sick and was brought to Temple Street Children’s Hospital where I it was discovered I was suffering from renal failure,” said Rachel.

“I was on home dialysis for a year. It was for 12 hours every night but I was young so it didn’t bother me. I was on the transplant list for eight months which is good compared to others.”

Rachel was one of the 23 Irish athletes, all of whom have transplants, who travelled to Bangkok to compete in the World Transplant Games.

“The Games are a great promotion for organ donation. It is a chance for us to show what we can do and show what can be achieved through organ donation. It is so important that everybody is more aware about the importance of carrying an organ donor card.”

The Irish team gave their best ever performance to win a total of 39 medals at the event.

Before she left, Rachel used her love of tennis to raise money for the Games before she left. “I organised a tennis marathon day at Laytown/Bettystown Tennis Club to raise money for the games. It was great crack and we raised €5,000. Teams of four were given sponsorship cards and they came down on the day and each played for an hour,” she said.

Rachel was diagnosed with non-hodgkinsons lymphoma in October 2005 and finished treatment in March 2006.

“I have been relatively ok since and thankfully I haven’t had a relapse,” added Rachel.

You can see pictures of Rachel and read all about the team’s record-breaking performance in Bangkok on www.transplantteamireland.com.

For an organ donor card free text the word ‘DONOR’ to 50050 or log on to www.ika.ie for more information.