A team of organ transplant donors and recipients representing South Carolina will compete this week in the Transplant Games of America.
The games celebrate the success of organ transplants.
This year, 31 transplant recipients and living donors from South Carolina are competing. One of those recipients is Dennis Murphy, 72, who lives in Murrells Inlet.
Murphy received a liver transplant in 2006 after he was diagnosed with primary liver cancer. That surgery has allowed him to compete in four prior transplant games.
This year he will participate in golf, darts, tennis and ballroom dancing.
Murphy said the games bring together those who share quite a unique life experience.
“These are people that have the same story that you do, but they have a little bit of a different version of it,” Murphy said. “So it’s really exciting to be around them. I’ve made a lot of really great friends over the years going to these games.”
Murphy will compete in ballroom dancing, and his partner is actually his wife, Eva.
News13’s Maggie Lorenz had them show off some of their award-winning dance moves ahead of the competition, which you can see in the above video.
An 18-year-old kidney recipient from Cheraw and a 39-year-old liver recipient from Florence will also compete.
The games are Friday through Tuesday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
You can visit this website to learn how to register to be an organ tissue donor.
