{"id":230205,"date":"2022-07-01T09:56:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T07:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=117807"},"modified":"2022-07-01T09:56:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T07:56:20","slug":"never-give-up-mantra-drives-transplantees-sporting-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/never-give-up-mantra-drives-transplantees-sporting-success\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Never give up\u2019 mantra drives transplantee\u2019s sporting success"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1 \">\n<aside id=\"republication_tracker_tool-2\" class=\"republication_tracker_tool clearfix\">\n<h5 class=\"adtitle\">Republish for Free<\/h5>\n<div class=\"license\">\n<p><button name=\"Republish This Story\" id=\"cc-btn\" class=\"republication-tracker-tool-button\">Republish This Story<\/button><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"license\" rel=\"noreferrer license noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/never-give-up-mantra-drives-transplantees-sporting-success.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/never-give-up-mantra-drives-transplantees-sporting-success.png\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"message\">\n<p>Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<figure id=\"attachment_117808\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117808\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?attachment_id=117808\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"217\" class=\"wp-image-117808 size-thumbnail lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/never-give-up-mantra-drives-transplantees-sporting-success.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-117808 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/never-give-up-mantra-drives-transplantees-sporting-success.jpg\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"217\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-117808\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">South Africa\u2019s Robyn Emslie delivers a dart during the World Transplant Games held in England in 2019. Emslie will be competing in the National Transplant Games in Gqeberha on July 8 and 9. Photo: Full Stop Communications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Robyn Emslie\u2019s mantra of \u201cnever give up\u201d has seen her forge a sporting career in the transplantee arena which she will continue in Gqeberha next week.<\/p>\n<p>The 49-year-old is one of dozens of athletes who will celebrate life when they participate in the National Transplant Games, supported by SPAR Eastern Cape, at various venues around the city on July 8 and 9.<\/p>\n<p>Emslie has overcome a serious kidney disease to emerge as one of South Africa\u2019s top transplant competitors, winning silver medals in the darts singles and trips events at the World Transplant Games in England in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>At the same games, she achieved a bronze medal in the petanque pairs event.<\/p>\n<p>That was her fifth appearance at the world event and represented a remarkable turnaround from the time she was diagnosed with early-stage kidney failure at the age of 13.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt that time, I was very confused and had no idea what lay ahead for me,\u201d recalled Emslie, who lives in East London but is currently on a three-month contract in Kariega, working for Pathcare Laboratories as a medical technologist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I went into end-stage renal failure, I went through a series of varied emotions \u2013 anger, denial, depression and eventually acceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now her message to others is to \u201cnever give up\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo matter how daunting your situation may be, hold on to your faith, keep your support system such as family and friends close and learn as much as you can about what your options are going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite 21 years of monitoring her blood results and undergoing a bone marrow biopsy, as well as two kidney biopsies, Emslie\u2019s kidneys continued to deteriorate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went into end-stage kidney failure in January 2007 after getting food poisoning and suffering from dehydration,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was on dialysis for just over one year before receiving my life-saving gift from my sister-in-law, Linda Styles, on February 12, 2008.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI realised when I was first diagnosed that my life would never be the same again, not as a child or teenager, nor as an adult. And it is true to a point \u2013 I have a very different life to what I ever imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet, despite this, Emslie remains positive about her life and sees the Transplant Games as a chance to share in the camaraderie of fellow transplanted athletes who have been through similar challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is one of the most amazing feelings to be involved in the nationals and World Transplant Games,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe get together with others who have gone through the same life-changing experience of an organ or bone marrow transplant. We share life stories, both good and bad, and make new friends as we go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe World Transplant Games is something different. To get together with transplantees from over 50 countries is truly unbelievable and I am proud and privileged to have represented South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have met wonderful people and made great friends over the years of attending these events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her focus now is on the national event where she will compete in lawn bowls, petanque, darts and tenpin bowling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to nationals to do my best in my events and to try to secure my place for Australia in 2023,\u201d said Emslie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing nationals, I will continue practising my sporting events, start to do fundraising for Australia and stay as healthy as possible, as all transplantees do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/contact\/featured\/\">CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <span class=\"post-views-icon dashicons dashicons-chart-bar\"><\/span> <span class=\"post-views-label\">Press Release Views:<\/span> <span class=\"post-views-count\">79<\/span> <\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-pagination pagination\">Pages: <span class=\"post-page-numbers current\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>1<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/never-give-up-mantra-drives-transplantees-sporting-success\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>2<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\">Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republish for Free Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. South Africa\u2019s Robyn Emslie delivers a dart during the World Transplant Games held in England in 2019. Emslie will be competing in the National Transplant Games in Gqeberha on July 8 and 9. Photo: Full [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9021,1],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-230205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mypr","8":"category-south-africa","9":"tag-mypr","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/never-give-up-mantra-drives-transplantees-sporting-success.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}