The Games

 
NKF U.S. TRANSPLANT GAMES
 
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF), along with its many Affiliates/Divisions, presents the NKF 2008 U.S. Transplant Games celebration of life that includes transplant recipients, their friends and families, living donors, donor families, transplant professionals and spectators from the host community.
 
The Games is the only national athletic competition for recipients of all life-saving organ transplants, as well as the largest gathering of transplant recipients and donor families in the world. The Games serve to promote the health and fitness of its participants while showcasing the success of transplantation, highlighting the tremendous need for more organ and tissue donors, and honoring the thousands of selfless acts of love from donors and their families all over the world.
 
The Games is a four-day athletic competition for recipients of organ transplants. Competition in the Games is open to anyone whose most recent lifesaving solid organ transplant — heart, liver, kidney, lung, intestine, pancreas and/or heterologous bone marrow — has been functioning for at least six months.
 
As much as the Games is an athletic event that calls attention to the success of organ and tissue transplantation, it is also a celebration of life among recipients, their families and friends as well as an opportunity to honor our nation’s donors.
 
The purposes of the NKF U.S. Transplant Games are:
 

• To demonstrate to the public the collective and individual successes of the life-restoring therapy of organ transplantation.
• To utilize the media to promote the success of organ donation and transplantation.
• To call attention to the need for organ donation through events and support activity before, during, and after the event.
• To contribute to the successful rehabilitation of the nation’s transplant patient community.
• To involve the entire transplant community including physicians, allied professionals, patients, donor families, living donors and related organizations in a collaborative effort for the benefit of organ donation.
• To provide an opportunity for these goals to be achieved locally by NKF Affiliates and other participating organizations.

 
Attendees
 
Athletes – Anyone who has received a life-supporting allograft and hemopoetic cell transplant from other individuals or species which require or have required the use of immunosuppressive drugs. The most recent transplant must have been functioning for at least six months. All competitors must be medically-approved by their physician in order to compete. No competitor will be permitted to compete without the receipt of a properly completed medical waiver signed by the professional responsible for his or her medical care.
 
Living Donors – Individuals who have given the “Gift of Life” through organ and tissue donation.
 
Donor Families – Families whose loved ones gave the “Gift of Life” by donating organs and/or tissues after death.
 
Friends & Family – Supporters of transplant recipients, living donors and donor families.
 
Transplant Professionals – Doctors, nurses, procurement professionals, bereavement specialists, transplant coordinators, transplant social workers and transplant dieticians.
 
Local Community – Those living in the surrounding area of the NKF U.S. Transplant Games site.