Halfmoon Bay resident Mike Gojevic didn’t expect to win medals, but he walked away with a gold in lawn bowling and two silvers in golf and 10-pin bowling.
It’s a big win for Gojevic but he said it’s the stories and the solidarity with fellow transplant survivors that made his first appearance at the National Transplant Games so successful.
“It was great camaraderie. It was great for organ donor awareness. Tons and tons of people came out to take in the different events,” he said.
The National Transplant Games have been held nine times and take place every second year. This time they touched down at UBC, bringing together more than 300 athletes, living donors, donor family members and supporters to the campus’s sports facilities from July 2 to 7. Gojevic was chosen as B.C.’s team manager.
The games are about competition but Gojevic said it’s the fact that organ recipients compete at all that makes the games so important. “It’s just amazing what people are doing,” he said in reference to the athlete performances. The oldest athlete was 79 and the youngest was three. “It was very inspiring to get together with other recipients and living donors and donor families from across the country.”
Approximately 120 people volunteered at the games, including several of Gojevic’s siblings.
Gojevic is a healthy 58-year-old, but five years ago that changed when he was struck with pneumonia and complications, forcing him to be hospitalized for several months and eventually leading to a double lung transplant. “There were four different pathologists and they still couldn’t come up with a definitive diagnosis or cause,” recalls Gojevic. “It was one year from very healthy to a new set of lungs.”
Today the avid golfer volunteers his time as director with the B.C. chapter of the Canadian Transplant Association, and is helping organize its annual Transplant Trot, which will take place July 2019. He is also involved with a pilot project with BC Transplant to build awareness about organ donations at local family practices.
And with the success of this year’s national competition – both in terms of medals and community building – he and his wife, who also volunteered at the games, plan to travel to Newcastle, England next August, where the World Transplant Games will be held. “I’m kind of hooked now,” he said.
