Kidney transplant recipient honors donor by playing football with tribute team

Ian Alexander spent years on dialysis before receiving a life-saving kidney transplant, an operation that followed two unsuccessful donor offers. The transplant matched him with a 32-year-old woman who loved football, prompting Alexander to resume the sport as a tribute. He now plays as goalkeeper for the Scottish Transplant Football Team, wearing a “Forever 32” jersey to keep his donor’s memory alive.

The team, which he also helps organise, is set to play its first friendly of the season against Sands United, a group of fathers who have lost babies, on September 27. Alexander, a father of two living in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, shared his experience to mark Organ Donation Week and urges people to talk about organ donation and record their choices on the NHS Organ Donor Register.