The 25th World Transplant Games are set to take place in Dresden, Germany from August 17 to 24, 2025 and Team Canada will be one of 60 nations participating in these exciting Games, showing the world that organ donation works. The athletes highlight the physical achievements of transplant recipients but also raise awareness about the importance of organ donation. They demonstrate strength, courage and hope, inspiring others to register as organ donors. 

Team Canada is sending its largest team ever with 85 members. Supported by family members and friends, transplant recipients, living donors, and donor family members will compete in various athletic events. Of the 52 Team Canada athletes, nine are from BC, including Amanda Kuhn. 

Amanda currently serves as the provincial director of BC for the Canadian Transplant Association. She shares, “To me, there is comfort in having a space where people can share, connect and engage with others who have gone through similar life events. Only a person who has gone through a transplant knows what it is like, and it is great to be able to know you are not alone in all this.”

Amanda is looking forward to competing alongside her transplant community and making new connections with participants from around the world.  

I grew up as a healthy and active child in Coldstream, BC, just outside of Vernon. However, at the age of 12 I was rushed to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver and unexpectedly diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a chronic liver disease that damages the bile ducts, plus autoimmune hepatitis and ulcerative colitis. 

Under the incredible care of my health teams, I lived a great eighteen years with my original liver, which I consider a huge accomplishment given people with PSC have a 10-year life expectancy. 

At 12, I was told I had a 10 per cent chance of developing liver cancer and unfortunately in 2021 I developed a tumor. The tumor progressively grew and the compounding cirrhosis, scarring and damage, from my liver diseases led to end-stage liver failure, which meant the cancer treatment didn’t work. 

In December 2022, I was airlifted to Vancouver General Hospital from Kelowna General Hospital and placed on the transplant list during the Christmas holidays. I was told I had six months to live. 

Luckily, in February 2023, at the age of 30, I underwent a life-saving liver transplant and became a member of the transplant community. I am truly thankful for the work BC Transplant does. 

I had a few difficult complications during recovery from my liver transplant. I developed painful blood clots in one of my kidney veins from surgery which required three months of injections for treatment. A few months after that, I developed post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, a known complication after organ transplant. I was hospitalized for a month for a lymphoma scare because I developed large lymphatic lesions in my throat. It was unbearably painful, and I couldn’t swallow liquid or foods. I lost a lot of weight and suffered from malnutrition. It took a long time to recover from this complication while still healing from receiving a transplant.  

Now two years post-transplant, I feel more stable and am fully engaged in my life again. I am learning to live with my new liver and am grateful each day for my organ donor. 

     

Despite my multiple diseases, I was always active and adventurous pre-transplant and have continued post-transplant.

I grew up on the ice with figure skating and performed both solo and with a synchronized skating team. I also volunteered teaching younger kids how to skate and even learned how to speed skate. 

I took up martial arts, eventually earning a black belt in taekwondo. I was also an avid skier, both cross country and downhill.

From an early age, I enjoyed running and cycling and was part of the cross-country running and triathlon teams. To build and maintain my strength, I weightlift too.

 

My job as a professional silviculture forester also keeps me active. You can find me trudging through the forest checking on the growth and health of a new forest or chasing machines with restoration works. I feel thankful to have been able to return to my profession post-transplant, and to have accomplished my goal of reforesting a recent wildfire with 10 million seedlings in one season. 

When I received the call that a viable liver was available, I had just walked out of the gym where, despite being in end stage liver failure with jaundice, fatigue, ascites (fluid build-up in the belly), edema and pruritus (intense itchiness), I was still focused on being as strong as possible. 

While lying in the hospital bed before getting wheeled to the operating room, the surgeon said he could not believe I was still able to work a physical job and be so active and strong with how sick and near death I was. 

I believe keeping a strong mind and body through the most difficult times in your life makes you a better fighter – someone who can endure and someone who can conquer what is thrown at them. 

The ability to be active is an honour and privilege, and something I am grateful for everyday because it can be so easily taken away from you. I have been blessed over the last year to get out and live the dreams that I had in that hospital bed while sick.

This is my first World Transplant Games, and I am proud to be able to attend two years post-transplant. I was interested in competing this year to continue to test my abilities and engage with the transplant community. I also attended the 2024 Canadian Transplant Games in Ottawa, just one year after my transplant. 

Competing in the Canadian Games allowed me to meet other people that had the same or similar diseases to me. I had never met someone with my diseases before as PSC is rare, so it was nice to be able to relate to others. It was also magical to see others accomplishing their fitness goals and having fun while doing it.

I will be competing in the 5km run, 10km time trial cycle and 30km road race cycle. 

These are the sports that I am most passionate about. I am grateful that I am capable enough to do them as it seemed nearly impossible to get here from where I was. I do not have any expectations on how I will do as I am there to compete with myself and test my own strengths. I look forward to seeing others accomplish their fitness aspirations as well.

Dedication, determination and discipline create progress, and I hope to continue to compete in future Transplant Games.

My mother registered me as an organ donor at birth, not knowing one day I would be relying on organ donation to save my life.  A gift, a sacrifice and a journey. I have a connection now to a person I will never meet.  

I hold great respect and appreciation for this person's generous gift and value the opportunity to be able to accomplish things in life in honour of my donor. I am forever blessed with this connection we share and am indebted to the selfless act of my donor and their family for choosing to pass life along through organ donation.