Oldest competitor at Transplant Games, 89, thanks wife for kidney

“I’ve no intention of giving up just yet,” says Mike Gibbons, the oldest competitor at the World Transplant Games.

“But I am going to have to accept that time isn’t on my side and someday I will have to curb my enthusiasm,” the 89-year-old from North Yorkshire concedes.

Mr Gibbons has been taking part in the annual competition since 2008 – a year after his wife Ann donated one of her kidneys to him.

He recently won three silver medals and a gold in squash and athletics at the British Transplant Games in Oxford and will be competing in the under-90s age group – the oldest category there is – at the World Transplant Games in Dresden, Germany, on Sunday.

“I have accumulated many medals over the years,” says Mr Gibbons, from Draughton, near Skipton.

“I accept that at my age, I don’t have many competitors, so sometimes I get a medal because I am the only one – but I treasure them nonetheless.”

His wife Ann now lives in a care home and suffers from dementia but Mr Gibbons carries a picture of them together at every race.

The former broadcast technician says: “I hang it around my neck when I attend the games so she’s always with me.

“She was well-known and loved the Games. People always ask after her.

“It’s another way of honouring the concept of donation – that someone gives an organ, you never forget their gift.”

He developed kidney failure when he was 55 and was put on dialysis in 2005.

“When I was first diagnosed it came as a bombshell,” Mr Gibbons recalls.

He was put on a transplant waiting list but there was “no guarantee of a successful outcome” and Ann shared his feeling that he was “only half alive”.

Mr Gibbons was initially against Ann donating her kidney but in 2007 he “succumbed to his wife’s earnest desire” for her to do so.

The surgery took place in Bradford and was a success.

“I was reborn and I would like to think Ann has peace of mind knowing that our lives can be as one again.

“I’m here only by the grace of God of her donation.”

Mr Gibbons turns 90 next year and has booked a trip to the Antarctic to celebrate.

“I’m very into mountaineering and wild places, so it’s somewhere different.

“I’ve always wanted to go so I have booked it to commemorate my ‘big’ birthday.”

Mr Gibbons also wants to thank the medical and nursing team at St Luke’s Hospital’s renal unit, part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

“Organ donation is wonderful,” he says.

“It’s a life-saving and life changing operation and has given me 18 more years of life.”

He adds: “I think about it nearly every day, especially now with Ann’s situation. I owe her my life and I am truly grateful.”