Inspirational Sports Coach Heading for Transplant Games

Hafeez Ahmad has worked at Better in Manchester as an athletics coach for more than twenty years. Also a trained sports therapist and physiotherapist, part of his role involves supporting disabled children and adults and those with cancer.

Although you might imagine that Hafeez, aged 44, has pursued this career because of his physical prowess, the reverse is true - he became interested in sports and fitness as a way to manage his own health struggles.

As a child, he had meningitis which weakened the left side of his body and impaired his speech. Later, as a young adult, he experienced kidney failure and relied on dialysis and though he was fortunate to receive a kidney transplant, he still struggles with poor health at times.

“When my kidneys failed, my wife left me,” he recalls. “After the operation, my weight went up to nineteen-and-a-half stone, partly from sitting around all day but also because of the medication. That’s when I became interested in sport – my father and grandfather encouraged me to get fit and I am now a healthy weight.

“But life’s not always easy and I suffer a lot. The medication can give you headaches and cramps and sometimes I can't leave the house - I was in hospital for three weeks over Christmas. But I take care to eat healthily and look after my kidney – no salt, fizzy drinks or tomatoes – and I drink a lot of water. I also have a new partner, Tayyaba, who is very supportive.”

In addition to working as an athletics coach, Hafeez, who lives in Levenshulme, has pushed himself even further and regularly competes in long jump and darts. His determination has led him to win a silver medal in long jump at the British Transplant Games and bronze at the European Transplant Games last year.

"I do everything I can to promote the Games," he says. "I want to show people how a donor can transform someone's life."

Hafeez has set up a Go Fund Me page and would welcome any donations - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/european-transplant-sport?utm_campaign=sharemodal&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=shareto