Victory shared at Transplant Games

By Brian McNeill

Published: July 13, 2008

A few years ago, Charlottesville hardware salesman Kenneth S. Neal was hooked to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day, was expected to die and figured he’d never again be able to play a round of golf, his favorite pastime.

Neal, 75, was a longtime smoker and had been diagnosed as having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“I had everything to gain and nothing to lose,” he said.

On Feb. 21, 2003, Neal received a lung transplant at the University of Virginia Medical Center.

“It was a new lease on life,” Neal said. “It was a miracle.”

This morning, Neal will be back on his beloved golf course to compete in the U.S. Transplant Games in Pittsburgh.

Neal is one of 35 transplant recipients from Virginia who are competing in the four-day games, which are sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation.

“I’ve pretty much got my swing back,” Neal said, standing on the driving range at the Meadowcreek Golf Course. “It took a long time and it wasn’t easy. But I got it back.”

The annual Transplant Games aim to show that organ transplantation works and does more than simply save lives, said Dena Reynolds, media

relations manager for LifeNet Health, a

nonprofit that coordinates organ and tissue donations in Virginia.

“It shows that you can be active again,” Reynolds said.

The games, she said, include both organ recipients and family members of deceased organ donors. They let the family members see the power of their relative’s gift.

“It’s an amazing experience for everyone,” Reynolds said. “They’ll all tell you, it’s the trip of a lifetime. There’s a lot of tears.”

The transplant recipients attending the games from Team Virginia will compete in events such as swimming, running, basketball, shot put, discus and golf.

“The donors’ families kind of think of this as their loved one living on,” Neal said.

In addition to Neal, the only competitor from the Charlottesville region, Team Virginia includes a 5-year-old girl from Virginia Beach and a 6-year-old girl from Roanoke. Both received a small intestine transplant at a very young age and both will participate in swimming and running events.

Neal has been preparing for the competition by practicing at the golf course at Pen Park every evening after leaving his job at Meadowbrook Hardware.

The competition will feature 18 rounds of golf. Neal will compete in an upper age bracket.

“The competition’s going to be tough,” he said. “Age don’t make a whole lot of difference.”

Paula Huffman, a 59-year-old Portsmouth resident who received a double lung transplant at UVa nine years ago, is manager of Team Virginia. Huffman said she hopes the games inspire more people to sign up as organ donors.

“There’s a critical shortage of organs,” she said. “It’s not like there aren’t enough people dying. There’s just not enough people signing up to be an organ donor.”

Nearly 100,000 people are awaiting an organ transplant in the United States, with more than 2,500 people waiting in Virginia.

An average of 18 men, women and children die each day while waiting for an organ donation. In Virginia, there are roughly three such deaths per week.

One organ donor can save seven lives — via the donor’s heart, liver, pancreas, both kidneys, lungs and small intestine — as well as improve more than 50 lives by doing such things as restoring a recipient’s vision with eye and tissue donation.

Potential organ donors can sign up at save7lives.org or at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Neal encouraged people who are not organ donors to consider signing up.