Madison Home to Transplant Games in 2010

MADISON – Trey Schwab has been to the Final Four with the Marquette Golden Eagles. He's coached in the NBA playoffs with the Minnesota Timberwolves. And he says the most gratifying professional experience he's ever had was at the 2008 U.S. Transplant Games in Pittsburgh.

"They don't even come close to this," says Schwab, the former coach who received a double lung transplant at UW Hospital and Clinics in 2004. "The Transplant Games is the most rewarding thing I've ever been involved with."

After his transplant, Schwab accepted a position as an outreach coordinator with the UW Hospital Organ Procurement Organization, and for the past two years he has been an instrumental member of the organizing committee that convinced the National Kidney Foundation that Madison is the right place for the 2010 Transplant Games.

Schwab joined a cadre of organ donation and transplant advocates at Monona Terrace and Convention Center Wednesday to officially announce the selection of Madison as host of the 2010 Transplant Games.

The Games, to be held July 30-August 4 of that year, are an Olympics-style event for athletes who have received life-saving organ transplants. Participants compete in a wide range of athletic endeavors - from basketball to bowling, from golf to swimming - and in doing so, support the Games' threefold mission of demonstrating the success of transplantation, honoring donors who have given the gift of life, and calling attention to the need for more organ donors. In addition, ceremonies and workshops are held to honor donor families and living donors.

Dr. Bryan Becker, a UW Hospital transplant medicine physician who was recently named president of the National Kidney Foundation, called attention to the final leg of the Transplant Games mission during his remarks.

Though the number of transplant surgeries has increased 12.5 percent nationwide since the initial Transplant Games in 1990, Dr. Becker said, recently "the transplant waiting list went over 100,000 for the first time ever."

As senior vice president of programs for the National Kidney Foundation, Gigi Politoski had an influential hand in reviewing the applications of the cities vying for the Games. She said Madison's history of transplant excellence and reputed civic involvement clinched her decision.

"Madison has a wonderful reputation as a transplant center. It's been leading the country in a lot of different areas of transplantation," she said. "But we also want a community that is going to embrace the event. The city has to want it."

Krista Flanagan, who as vice president of sales and marketing for the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau worked closely with Schwab to support Madison's application, pointed to the city's rabid support of its annual Ironman Triathlon as evidence of potential enthusiasm for the Transplant Games.

"We knew this community really gets involved in athletic events," she said. "If you look at something like the Ironman, the community really gets out and supports that."

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz agreed, saying events like the Transplant Games "really transform the whole downtown. This is something we really should be proud of."

But Cieslewicz had another reason for embracing the Transplant Games announcement. A member of his staff, Ray Harmon, is a transplant recipient.

"I'm going to tell Ray he has a year and a half to get in shape and represent the mayor's office," Cieslewicz said, and added with a smile, "And he better do well."

More information about the Transplant Games can be found at http://www.kidney.org/news/tgames/index.cfm. 
 

Date published: 10/22/2008