Transplant team score with surgical precision!

Unique Brum footy squad have all been recipient of organ donation

- AMY GAFFNEY News Reporter

THEY are the Birmingham footballers for whom the result every weekend is not the most important thing.

Because all 30 members of Birmingham Transplant Football Club have undergone life-changing surgery thanks to the kindness of donors.

Each one has received a lifesaving organ or stem cell transplant from the city's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Established in 2024, the team has competed against other transplant clubs across the country and has won the British Transplant Games football tournament twice.

Player Rich Smith has been taking part in transplant sport for 30 years.

He said: "Part of the deal about the football team is to go out there and tell people about the success of transplantation.

"But not by lecturing them - just by playing football with them. It tells people about the success of transplantation.

"That is the most important thing. It's the reason we exist.