Algarve teen to compete at World Transplant Games

Temperance Reid was just nine months old when she received a heart transplant

Algarve resident Temperance Reid is preparing to travel to Perth, Australia, to join Team Great Britain at the 24^th World Transplant Games.

Temperance, 14, received a donor heart when she was just nine months old after contracting Kawasaki Disease, which causes « blood vessels to become inflamed and swollen and caused her to have a heart attack.

Despite a difficult recovery and daily challenges, including a strict medication and monitoring regime, Temperance has not let her start in life hold her back.

Temperance lives a healthy and active life and first participated in the World Transport Games when she was four. She competed for Team GB in the winter games in Banff, Canada, in 2020 and brought home a gold medal for downhill skiing.

Living in the Algarve, Temperance spends a lot of her time cycling, having trained during the winter with the Algarve’s newest cycling club, Sociedade Recreativa Almancilense (SRA), based in Almancil.

Led by club president Andre Leman and founded by Nelson Ramos, who is also the head of the cycling club, SRA aims to provide children from all backgrounds, ages, and abilities with an opportunity to cycle.

While she will be cycling for Team GB, Temperance will also be symbolically representing the Algarve and SRA at the World Transplant Games, which begin on April 15.

Temperance’s mother, Claire Reid, said: “I am so proud of my daughter. She has overcome huge challenges and is an inspiration to many. Children’s cycling is still up and coming in Portugal, which is why Temperance is competing for Team GB, but in the future, we hope she will cycle for Team Portugal.

“I want to thank the Almancilense for its support over the winter. Temperance has particularly enjoyed training with her cycling coach, Desmond Wynne, CEO of Lazer Telecom, one of the club’s main sponsors,” she added.

The World Transplant Games were first held 1978 in Portsmouth, UK, have grown to become “the world’s largest awareness event for the gift of life and a beacon for transplant recipients, their families and supporters, donor families and living donors,” the competition’s website says.

The seven-day program of high exertion and low impact sports, along with many social and cultural events, caters to both elite and social athletes and attracts 2500 participants from over 60 nations, it adds.