TSUK Transplant Sport

Games Round-up

Thank-you from the Chair

Thanks to everyone who came along and made the 2010 British Transplant Games in Bath a great success. It was fantastic to see so many people cheering on the participants at the numerous sporting events last weekend. Also, seeing Bath Abbey packed out with athletes and supporters from all over Britain for the magical opening ceremony was truly very special. I want to thank TSUK for bestowing me the honour of being the chairman of the Bath 2010 Games.

My final e-newsletter is a message of many thank-you’s to everyone who has supported myself and the Games over the last 18 months.

The Games was firm proof that transplant recipients can lead a normal and active life again after their operations. Having seen over 600 athletes, men, women and children, competing in 40 sporting events over the four-days, I can see no better reason for encouraging people to sign up to the Organ Donor Register. I was also pleased to welcome the Donor Family Network to the Games and I want to say how moving it was to see the standing ovation that they received when they processed into Bath Abbey for the opening ceremony, the Donor families are an inspiration to us all. I also want to say how honoured I am to be their National Patron. Thank you to the Brightside Transplant Charity for running their red bus from Coventry to Bath during the week leading up to the Games and signing up over 800 people.

As Chair of the Local Organising Committee, I am really grateful to all the individuals and organisations that made this year’s Games possible. We couldn’t have put on the four-day event without the financial and in kind support from all our sponsors and supporters. On a personal note I would like to thank local companies and individual people who have supported myself and the Games over the last few months, I am truly grateful to you all for your support and friendship. And to Gary Button and the Old Mill Hotel who presented nearly £2,500 to the Games just before the opening ceremony. The money was raised at a fundraising dinner held in the lead up to the Games. And thank you to Chris Lilley Catering and your staff for providing such a wonderfully delicious meal at the Games gala dinner.

My thanks go to Rensburg Sheppards Investment Management, the first company to ever adopt a team and which supported the Bristol Adults’ Team. Also I am grateful to Bugler Coaches which adopted the Bristol Children's Team and did a great job as one of the transport providers at the Games. I hope that this new initiative will be taken up by many more companies across Britain in the years to come.

Thanks to Team Bath for spending months organising and then, over the four days of Games, managing the sports programme at the event and to Sarah Casselden and WESPORT for managing the volunteers at the Games. It was great to have 75 volunteers onsite giving up their time to help with the smooth running of the Games. Many volunteers came from Bath based Touchstone, a company which also came on board as the first local company to sponsor the 2010 Games. Thank you to Bristol surgeon Paul Lear for his support in overseeing the medical planning, and thanks to our local St. John’s Ambulance group and Constantin Jabarin who organised all the medical teams for the Games.

Also we want to say thank you to our MCs at the Games events Malcolm Hargreaves and John Martindale. What a sterling job they did announcing the Games and also at the medal presentations.

Thanks to Paul Anson and Garvin Besson from DE Photo, the official games photographers, who did an amazing job dashing to all the sports events to take the photographs.

I am also grateful to Martyn Read and Wellsway BMW who not only provided a special venue for the 100 days to go drinks reception, but also loaned cars and a van for the duration of the Games and to Kingsley Graves and Vivien Simpson who took time out to drive me around to all the sporting venues over the four days. On a national basis we had generous donations from major organisations such as Simply Health and Heart Research UK and grateful thanks go to Barbara Harpham and Neil for their wonderful support and for spending Sunday at the Games helping with the results and medal presentations.

We are pleased that Bath Aqua Glass were able to produce a very special commemorative glass plate which all the athletes took home from the Games as a reminder of their visit to the City. Thank you also to local company Touchstone who sponsored the wonderful gift and to Adrian and Annette at Bath Aqua Glass for designing the gift.

And I want to also thank Jason Hindle and his staff at Ralph Allen Press for the producing all the packs, flyers and literature in the lead up to the Games. It was important to me to be able to involve as many local businesses as I could in the lead up to and during the Games.  Thank you to Orchard Pig for supplying all the delicious soft drinks and the sparkling cider for the Sunday Games reception.
 
Thank you Becki Sumsion, Director of U-Hire Recruitment who delivered collection boxes around the city and was also a volunteer at the Games. And to Jane Pritchard, Pamela Norris and Kate Lloyd Williams, previously of PolicyPlus who helped with the Donor Bus, and with posters and leaflets. I want to thank all the companies and individuals and who came forward to support myself and the Games this year, I am pleased that we have been able to feature everyone in our monthly e-newsletter over the last few months.

Many thanks to Bath Abbey for providing a spectacular venue for the opening ceremony and to Bath based singer/songwriter Clyve and Jon Birch for composing, and to Clyve for performing, the first ever anthem REACH for the Games, supported by the amazing Jazzi P, Sarah Bull and Baths wonderful Vocal Works Gospel Choir.  I am also grateful to those that provided venues free of charge for the Games, including Bath & North East Somerset Council for Royal Victoria Park and Pulteney Weir (for canoeing), Widcombe Social Club (darts), Wessex Water's Tucking Mill in Limpley Stoke (fishing) and Bath Bowling Club and to your wonderful club members for giving up time to help at your venues. And to Lee Curren of Molly Films who filmed the opening ceremony as well as some of the Games.


I want to say a very grateful thank you to the media, including our fantastic media partner the Bath Chronicle, for raising awareness of the Games. The Chronicle and its sister papers, the Western Daily Press and Bristol Evening Post did a great job reporting both in the run-up to the Games and also at the event itself. Thanks also to BBC Radio Bristol and their presenter Ben Prater who gave over a considerable amount of airtime to the Games. My grateful thanks to Kate Authers and Bath Life for the support and coverage that they have given myself and the games. I am also particularly grateful to Martin Evans who agreed to be our MC for the Sunday night Gala dinner. It was also great to see ITV Westcountry and BBC Points West featuring the Games on numerous bulletins, the latter also broadcast live from the event on Friday lunchtime.

It was a delight to see so many athletes and local residents join us for the Bath Chronicle Donor Run that took place at Royal Victoria Park on Sat 21st August, thank you to everyone who came to cheer Sam Holliday (Editor of the Bath Chronicle) and me. We managed to walk the route and this enabled us to raise money for TSUK.

As you can see from the photo, Jazz singer Clare Teal and Muddy dropped by the donor run to cheer Sam and me on.

We were pleased that Chloe, Kate and Beatrice from Newbridge School, Bath who were the winners of our Christmas Card Competition run in conjunction with the Bath Chronicle were able to join us at the Games on the Sunday.

The Christmas cards will be available soon and proceeds from the sale will be given to TSUK.

We were pleased to welcome our patron of the games Olympic Gold Medallist Jason Gardener MBE who came to the Sunday athletics and presented medals to our amazing athletes. It was a great pleasure for us all to have Jason and his wife Nancy join us at the Games.

Particular thanks also go to MLS’s Emma Dean, Rosie Stafford, John Timms and Cheryl Davidson, and to the amazing Jo Bridger, who gave up her time to put together a marketing plan for the Games, Geometry PR’s Linda and Rick Donaldson, Mark Gee and Lisa Taylor and HSL’s Maddy Roles and the team. I want to also give particular thanks to TSUK’s administrator Mary Twomey who has been such a source of knowledge and support to me during my time as Chairman of the Bath Games, thank you Mary and to the amazing Michael Gates who normally takes part in the Games but this year chose to help Mary over the four days. Thank you Michael, you did a sterling job working tirelessly to help us all.

Finally, I want to thank the fantastic members of my Local Organising Committee for all the help and assistance they have given me over the last 18 months. Many travelled to Bath from all four corners of the country on a monthly basis to assist with the preparations.

Well done to everyone that won a medal or trophy at the Games and congratulations to the Bristol Adults team who won the adults swimming cup and to Birmingham Adults team, which was the best overall team at the event.

I want to say a huge thank you to my family, friends and work colleagues who have been amazing support to me over the last 18 months when I took time out to fulfill my role as Chairman of the Games, their support has been incredible - thank you.

I wish the Local Organising Committee for next year’s Games in Belfast all the best as they prepare for another amazing event,

With best wishes,

Loraine Morgan-Brinkhurst MBE, Chair of the Local Organising Committee


*******STOP PRESS: Lots of photos available on our Facebook page*******

Thanks from the Chairman of Transplant Sport UK

Thank you to all the competitors and supporters who came to the 2010 British Transplant Games in Bath and made it the great event that it was. It was fantastic to see so many smiling faces over the four days, particularly during the sunshine that we booked for Sunday’s track and field events!  And, of course, thank you to all our sponsors for making the Games possible – we couldn’t have done it without you.

I want to send a huge thank you to everyone that was involved in the organisation of the 2010 Games, notably the Local Organising Committee (LOC), who have been toiling away for the last 18 months pulling this together. To MLS, this is another Games you have delivered for us - thank you!

To everyone else who helped over the weekend, driving, giving medals, organising specific sports events, cleaning trophies, and all the other 1001 jobs that needed to be done, I really appreciate the work that you put in. Indeed, we have already had a number of thank you messages, both verbal and by email saying how much everyone enjoyed the weekend.
 
My personal thanks goes to Mary Twomey, who has done a huge amount of work behind the scenes, which most of the LOC have not seen.
 
Finally, to Loraine, thank you for the time you have put in, the contacts you have brought on board which have made a huge difference (Clyve was an amazing outcome). The opening ceremony in the Abbey and the civic reception in the Roman Baths will be a memory for a long time to come.
 
The photos from DE Photo, the official photographers, are already available. The results are also on our site now.
 
I now start on the Belfast Games with a new LOC, and we have a huge task ahead of us to do the same again. I look forward to meeting you all again next year,

Many thanks again to you all,
 
Peter Ford, Chairman, Transplant Sport UK

Official British Transplant Games Anthem 'Reach' ready for download

Reach, the official anthem for the British Transplant Games is now available to download.
It costs only 79p and all proceeds will go to charities Transplant Sport UK and the Donor Family Network.

The most popular way to download is on iTunes. Just go to the iTunes store and search for Clyve and then Reach is there waiting for you to purchase.  For those on Facebook you can become a fan of Clyve.

Reach was written by Bath based R & B artist Clyve and Jon Birch and also features Jazzi P (who has worked with Kylie and DNA). The anthem was performed at the opening ceremony at Bath Abbey along with the Vocal Works Gospel Choir.
 
The first 200 CDs that were produced to be sold at the Games were sponsored by Bath Business Web.