Always on
This project successfully funded on 22nd May 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Flying the Flag for the Transplant Games 2026
Manchester, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Aim
Hafeez’s achievement goes beyond personal victory. It serves as a powerful reminder of the strength of the transplant community.
Athletics coach Hafeez Ahmad has worked at ‘Better’s’National Squash Centre and Regional Arena in Manchester for more than twenty years. Also a trained sports therapist and physiotherapist, part of his role involves supportingdisabled 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 a stroke 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. For example, I was in hospital for three weeks over Christmas and the medication can give you headaches and cramps. 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 power walking. 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."
This year, Hafeez is heading for the European Transplant Games in The Netherlands. He has set up a Go Fund Me page and would welcome any donations - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/european-transplant-games---portugal-2024
The National Squash Centre and Regional Arena is run by charitable social enterprise GLL under the ‘Better’ brand.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made