Published: Wednesday, 11th August, 2010 5:00pm

Cavan athletes going for gold at transplant games

Paul Donohoe, Rose Dalton and Eamon Malone are the Cavan participants in the European Transplant Games.

Three Cavan athletes will be among the 375 from 24 countries "going for gold" at the European Transplant and Dialysis Games, which are being held in Ireland this week for the first time ever.

Rose Dalton from Mullahoran; Paul Donohoe, Doogarry and Eamonn Malone, Cavan town, are all kidney transplant recipients who will be flying the Cavan flag at the games, which finish on Sunday.

There was great celebrations at the Dublin City University campus last Sunday when the official opening of the games took place and the theme of the games will be to honour "the gift of life".

Taking part in her third games, Rose Dalton told The Anglo-Celt on Tuesday that she was delighted to taking part especially as they being held in Ireland for the first time. She took part in the bowling on Monday playing singles, doubles and mixed doubles and although she didn't win any medals, Rose was happy with her performance.

"Later in the week I am participating in the petanque (a form of French boules) and competing in the 3k walk on Saturday." Rose has also competed at the games in Germany and Hungry, as well as the world games in Canada. She won medals for badminton and the relay race in previous games.

Rose is accompanied by her husband Chris and son Christopher, as well as her sister-in-law who is a volunteer at the games. "The venue is ideal as every thing is close at hand. If we are not competing ourselves we support the other Irish competitors and we have already won a number of medals, which is great."

Paul Donohoe, who is also the national secretary of the Irish Kidney Association, took part in the ten-pin bowling on Monday and is looking forward to the darts on Thursday, petanque on Friday and the 5k walk on Saturday. Like Rose he has taken part in other games including the World Transplant Games in Thailand in 2009, the European Games in Germany in 2008 and the World Transplant Games in Australia in 2009. "I took a bronze in the 5k walk in Germany," he said.

Paul points out the difference between the world and European games is that the European is open to transplant patients and patients on dialysis. "This is the biggest donor campaign in Ireland this year and one of the largest in the world."

Ireland, he added, has its largest ever team at the games with 72 participants from 21 counties. "Athletes taking part in the games are either on dialysis treatment at the moment or have received a transplant of one, or a combination, of the following: kidney, liver, heart, pancreas, lungs, and bone marrow."

The sports involved are badminton, ten-pin bowling, cycling, darts, track and field, golf, mini-marathon, petanque, swimming, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball. "We have a dedicated team of volunteers who will make it all happen."

The competing countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The European Transplant and Dialysis Games take place every second year. At the 2008 games in Wurzburg, Germany, the Irish team finished third on the medals table from 24 competing countries. Ireland brought home a total of 42 medals.