Tom among quartet in England transplant team

FOUR cricketers from Gloucestershire are set to represent England next week in the Transplant Ashes, as a three-match series against Australia gets underway at Chipping Campden on Monday (1pm).

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Tom Coote, of Hatherley & Reddings, is a stem cell recipient who will be making his fourth appearance for the England and Wales Transplant Cricket team.

He is set to line up alongside Blockley’s Robin Watson, Liam Ward of Kingsholm and Ryan Penfold, of Westbury-on-Severn, who have had kidney transplants.

They're members of a special club that celebrates a ‘second innings’ thanks to the generosity of donors who have offered a new chance of life.

In Tom's case, he owes everything to older brother Sam who was a direct stem cell match after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in 2020.

The 33-year-old said: “I woke up one morning with big black bruises on my legs ... I didn't feel unwell in any way but it was obviously something that I could not ignore.” Blood tests quickly revealed the leukaemia and the same day he was diagnosed Tom was in hospital at Cheltenham Oncology receiving his first round of chemotherapy, and told he would be in hospital for the next six weeks.