Luke Rose is about to captain a football team at an international competition, but he's yet to meet anyone else on his team.
The six-a-side team is made up of people from different states and they'll get the chance to "have a run around" together just once before the matches kick off.
It's probably not what you'd expect from a sporting competition, but the World Transplant Games, which kicks off in Perth tomorrow, isn't your average tournament.
Mr Rose, who has received two kidney transplants, will travel from central Queensland to WA for what he describes as "a week of festivities".
The games cater for high-performance and social athletes across 17 sports including athletics, cycling, swimming, tennis and golf.
"It's more about just coming and having a go at stuff," Mr Rose said.
"It's always in the back of my mind that transplant is not a cure; it's more prolonging your life and bettering your life.
"I think that's why we enjoy it … because we know [life] can be gone just as quick."
Life after transplants
Mr Rose was born with medical conditions that led to kidney disease and, by his mid-20s, was on dialysis.
Although he'd been seeing specialists about his condition through his childhood and teenage years in Rockhampton, seeing a dialysis unit at the hospital for the first time was "a shock".
"There were a lot of elderly people there," he said.
"You know, I was 20, I felt fine … I was still playing sport and everything so I just couldn't see myself in that position."
But by 26, he was on dialysis three days a week for four hours each time.
"Between 20 and 30, when most people are partying and whatnot, I was stuck to a machine and just very tired all the time," he said.
That's when his mum, Rosemary, made a monumental decision.
There was never a moment of doubt that, if they were compatible, she would donate a kidney even if it did mean quitting smoking after 40 years.
"You can support them, you can take them meals," Ms Rose said.
"But it is heart-wrenching to watch them go on a machine for so many hours, so many days a week.
"He never once complained because he knew it was keeping him alive."
A year later, after Rosemary gave up smoking and went through months of tests, mother and son headed to Brisbane in October 2007.
"It was very emotional … she gave me life again," Mr Rose recalled.
However, by 2016, Mr Rose was again on dialysis three days a week and waiting for a transplant.
He got the call one night in June 2018: he needed to get from Rockhampton to Brisbane for his second kidney transplant.
Although he thought he knew what was ahead in recovery, Mr Rose said the two operations "were just so different".
After some complications – and another surgery – the kidney worked.
Several years on and life looks normal again for Mr Rose: working, spending time with family, enjoying sports and the great outdoors.
Donation registration encouraged
This weekend, Mr Rose will be among 1,500 people from 46 countries at the World Transplant Games in Perth.
It's the third time Australia has hosted the games, the first since England hosted in 2019 pre-COVID-19.
Transplant Australia chief executive officer Chris Thomas described it as "a week of happiness" celebrating donor recipients and honouring donors and their families. Raising awareness about organ donation is also an important part of the event.
"We know that 90 per cent of the population say, 'Yes, it's a good thing', but only 36 per cent are actually registered," Mr Thomas said.
"If you are registered and you've told your family, you're much more likely to become a donor – 90 per cent of people who are registered become donors.
"Conversely, if you've never spoken with your family and if you've not registered, families only approve [donation] in about one in two cases."
Ms Rose has watched her son compete at several games and said it was "amazing" to meet other donor recipients.
"I'm just in awe of them," she said.
"They're amazing people … every day that they get to live is a blessing."
