MARTIN Baker, of Bovey Tracey, was a part of the England Transplant football team that represented the country in the 2024 World Cup.

The team have just returned from their travels, visiting Italy for the tournament.

Martin has had two kidney transplants as part of a 3-way match and first got involved in transplant sports in 1980. This came about through his renal nurse in London’s Guys Hospital, the year after he had his first transplant which was a live donor from his mum.

He described this tournament as being “Great to promote the gift of life while playing a game that I have always loved. It was fantastic to be able to play against teams from around the world and great to play at such a high standard.”

England topped their group with five wins from five, beating France, Ireland, Wales, USA and Romania on their way to the summit.

Martin told us that the group “Supported each other and had a great laugh too”, adding that “all the supporters were fantastic and really helped to distract and calm the nerves”.

This camaraderie made for an even better trip and it shone through on the pitch, winning six games from seven in total and being able to call themselves the third-best team in the world.

As Martin mentioned, celebrating the gift of life is the key ethos to the tournament and there was just as much pride for his wife Jacqui- here is what she had to say. “To spend a week being able to speak about all things transplants, the ups & downs & how it impacts family life was really refreshing. It was an emotional week. Tears & hugs of celebration & pride.”

This was the first-ever Transplant World Cup and Martin has other sporting ventures to look forward to as well. He has taken part in the Transplant Games previously and he has volleyball coming up in November.

Being a 53-year-old alongside 20-year-olds was a further moment of pride, saying that this is “not bad for our first World Cup”, even joking that “I guess that puts me in the history books for Transplant Games.”