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Plans for Malmesbury transplant patient Bradley Arendse (39) to head to the World Transplant Games in Perth, Australia this month fell through, yet he remains positive.
Tygerberg Hospital recently wished Arendse well for the Games, but visa issues had him heading back to Cape Town International Airport Monday.
Last August Arendse shared his journey of from being a patient to a top athlete with Swartland Gazette in honour of Organ Donation Month.
In July 2013 he was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease and started peritoneal dialysis at Tygerberg Hospital in October that year and in February 2016 with haemodialysis.
Despite many challenges and setbacks, including the cancellation of a kidney transplant, Arendse pushed through. It was in 2019, after being on the transplant waiting list for seven years, that he received a new kidney from a deceased donor.
Four months after the successful transplant he completed his first Cape Town Cycle Tour, in March 2020.
According to Arendse, despite playing club rugby before his diagnosis, it was after his transplant that he is the strongest and fittest he has ever been. As part of his new lease on life he started training to make the national team that would take part in the World Transplant Games.
The Games Federation is a British non-profit organisation that aims to promote amateur sport among organ-transplant recipients, living donors and donor families.
The games, the largest sports event for organ-transplant recipients in the world, will take place from Saturday 15 to Friday 21 April.
Arendse would have been among more than 1 500 athletes from more than 60 countries competing against other organ-transplant recipients in the 30-39 age group for the 100 m sprint.
In his response to the Tygerberg Hospital team when due to depart he said: “I am grateful to the anonymous deceased donor, Organ Donation South Africa, the Tygerberg Hospital nephrology team and the Nation Renal Care Dialysis Centre in Paarl, for accompanying me on this journey. Also, I am very thankful to my wife, who has been my pillar of strength throughout this whole experience.”
Arendse advises other transplant patients to take the good with the bad. “One day of good memories can lead to a lifetime of joy. I always compare life with a battery. One cannot start the battery without the negative and positive. The same can be said of life; there will be positives and negatives.”
Aside from his love of sport the father of three is also a poet and writer. He told Swartland Gazette staying at home was beyond his control and was most heartbroken for all those who supported him on the path to the Games. Arendse has now set his sights on the German games in 2025.
According to the Western Cape Department of Health one organ donor can save up to seven lives and transform more than 50 lives. Organ donation is a medical procedure where one person donates an organ, or tissue, to another person who needs a transplant. People who need an organ or tissue transplant are usually very sick, because one or more of their organs are failing.
Kidney transplantation offers the best quality of life and longest survival for patients with end-stage kidney disease, according to Dr Johan Nel from the Division of Nephrology said. “Unfortunately, much needs to be done to raise public awareness and increase donation.”
