NEXT year the British Transplant Games, the UK's top sporting event for people who have received organ transplants, will be in Edinburgh. In August several young Scots will be heading to Bath to compete in this year's event. Two young athletes tell fresh about their life-changing, and life-saving, experiences Ifrah Raza, 16, suffered a heart attack when she was only 11, causing her kidneys to fail. She was saved thanks to her uncle donating a kidney.

'If you just looked at me you wouldn't know there has ever been anything wrong. I'm a sporty person. I play badminton a lot and I'm quite good at football. I'm an all-rounder, apart from goals. I'm usually a midfielder as I'm fast at running.

But when I was 11, I had a heart attack. I was perfectly healthy, till then - nothing wrong with me at all. But over the course of a week I got really ill. I was admitted into hospital and it was discovered I had had a cardiac arrest. That seemed crazy.

People don't think you can have a heart attack at that age, they just think it's something that happens to old people. My kidneys failed and I slipped into a coma for three days. The doctors said I had no chance of surviving. My parents were prepared for the worst. There wasn't much the doctors could do, aside from putting me on life support. They admit it was a miracle that I survived.

But then they discovered they had to remove both of my kidneys because they were doing too much damage. So I went on dialysis (a machine which removes the waste products from the body, the job that the kidneys should do). I was on about 30 tablets a day. I got really tired very easily. I couldn't walk half a mile without getting knackered. There were two types of dialysis machine: One involves going into hospital three times a week for three or four hours. I was on that for a bit and that drained me out completely. I couldn't go back to school after that. I chose the second option, where you get to take the machine home and be on it for 10 hours a day.

It was difficult being on a machine every night and having to go to sleep at a certain time so I could be off it in time for school. It felt like being imprisoned. That was quite difficult. I read a lot and watched a lot of films too. I was constantly low. I lost so much weight, I was really skinny and just looked horrible.

But after two years, in 2003, I got a kidney transplant from my uncle. My dad actually was the first choice and his kidney matched, but his blood pressure was too high. Then it was my uncle's turn to be tested. The result was actually amazing, because he wasn't my dad or brother, the doctors said they'd never had such a close match with an uncle before. They were amazed too.

Now my life is back to the way it was before I was ill: I'm just home from playing badminton for two hours. The only difference, basically, is that I have to drink three litres of water a day.

Having the transplant has made a huge difference. As I've grown older, I realise the huge sacrifice my uncle has made as well. He's fine and active, and it made no difference to him. If it had, then I'd feel a wee bit responsible. But, thank God, nothing happened to him. I was close to my uncle before the transplant, but we're even closer now.

It's a bit of a cliche, but having an organ transplant really does make you look at life differently. It makes me live life to the full. I don't take things for granted any more. There are still people with so much less than me. I'm just grateful I can do everything everyone else can.

At the national transplant games, I'm going to be competing in the badminton, table tennis, and 100m. The games are a great idea as they raise awareness that organ donation is an important thing. These people, myself included, have been given a new lease of life.

If I hadn't gone through this, I wouldn't have known much about organ donation. I wouldn't have talked about it in normal conversation either. Carrying a donor card is definitely a good thing. It's a great idea to give people new life.'

EMMA'S STORY
When asked how many scars she has on her stomach, Emma Baxter still has to check. She may have lived most of her 17 years with them, but they are so much a part of her as her transplanted kidney, she almost doesn't know they're there. "Seven, " she says finally. "And they're pretty cool."

Emma was born in Glasgow with a defective kidney and spent the first four years of her life on a dialysis machine. She was seriously ill.

"I just remember being hooked up to machines, " she says. "I don't remember much of the day of the operation either. I was four at the time."

Her kidney transplant was a success and freed her from relying on machines. Now it's dance that moves her, but she doesn't indulge in any robotics.

"I go dancing every Tuesday - I'm sitting my dancing exams soon, " she says. "I do tap, modern, disco, street and ballet. I like the ballet and street most." With the help of her dance teacher, Emma hopes to go to Anniesland College, in Glasgow, before going to university and then setting up her own dance school.

There's no dance section for Emma to enter at the National Transplant Games, sadly. Instead, she will be competing in the long jump, the 200m and badminton.

"I still get tired a lot, more than the rest of the girls, " she admits. "But it doesn't affect me that badly. I keep up with it. I don't really think about it too much."

And Emma has some advice for anybody wavering about whether they should join the donors list: "Do it! It gives other people the chance of a life. I would have been on dialysis for years. If there are more organs, more people who need transplants would get one. It gives them a chance for life as well."

How can I be a donor?

You can register as a donor by calling the NHS Organ Donor Line: 0845 60 60 400 or visit
www.uktransplant.org.uk. Make sure to talk to your family about this so they know what you want.