The tears start to well in Nigel Goldsworthy's eyes when he thinks about the moment that changed his life almost 50 years ago.
His kidneys were failing and he needed a transplant. Even then doctors gave him just five years to live after he received the transplant from a young motorcyclist he still doesn't know the name of.
Remarkably, Goldsworthy - now 67 years old - is still alive. And even better - 49 years and 11 months after the operation he's about to compete in the Transplant Games in Canberra.
Before receiving his transplant, Goldsworthy was going through the various stages of kidney failure and was forced onto a low-protein diet.
"At the time of my transplant I was only 37 kilograms, and they said I wouldn't survive a transplant," Goldsworthy said.
"At the time they give you five years [to live] basically. I thought [I'd] maybe into my mid-20s, then [I] just kept going and going. I proved them wrong."
Canberra is hosting the 17th edition of the Transplant Games, which started with an opening ceremony at Floriade on Wednesday and will run until Sunday.
Almost 500 transplant recipients from a range of age brackets and backgrounds will compete in everything from athletics and basketball to backgammon and sudoku.
Transplant Australia chief executive Chris Thomas says they provide "tangible proof of what transplant recipients can do once they've been given that second chance of life".
"There are more than 2500 years of extra life here because of organ and tissue donation," Thomas said.
Tissue and organ donors are also eligible to compete, as both lead to improving the lives of Australians.
Goldsworthy knows just how much organ donors can change a life.
"One thing that we have all got in common is the donor family," he said. "[The emotion] still comes back."
Goldsworthy will compete in golf, the 5km walk, darts and petanque when competition begins. He will be competing in his 15th Games after the initiative was started in 1988.
The Games' oldest competitor is 83-year-old Esther Scott, who received a liver transplant after being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, in her late teens.
"I got away with it for 50 years with no problem at all. Fifty years later, I had the repercussions, so 14 years ago I had a liver transplant," Scott said.
"I've probably travelled more than I would have in retirement. As you think, it's the kids' inheritance, but damn it all. Life is for the living. You've got a second chance, use it."
And Scott is certainly using it. This year she is competing in lawn bowls, petanque, ten pin bowling, sudoku, darts, and the 5km walk. This is her fourth time competing at the Transplant Games.
"If somebody, some family, hadn't had the generosity to donate their deceasing person's organs, I wouldn't be here," she said.
Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney said was important for every single Australian to register as an organ donor, if eligible.
