Somerton teen is going
for more medals in Steel City

By Ruth Rovner
For the Times

At age 15, Alicia Goodchild of Somerton is an athlete who’s won bronze and gold medals in national competitions. Softball, basketball, badminton — she’s won medals in all these. Now she’s primed and ready for another competition that begins this Friday in Pittsburgh.
It has an unusual requirement. The U.S. Transplant Games are Olympic-style competitions, but open only to those who have received a life-saving organ transplant.
Alicia meets that requirement. Born with dysfunctional kidneys, she was 8 years old when she became the recipient of a kidney transplant donated by her mother.
Just one year later, in 2002, she participated in her first U.S. Transplant Games — and won a bronze medal in softball for her age group. The games take place every two years, and she competed again in 2004 and 2006, again taking home medals. This year, she’s competing for the fourth consecutive time.
Besides winning medals, Alicia has enjoyed the total experience.
"It’s fun, and I get to meet new people who are also in my situation," she says.
Indeed, the games are not only for athletic glory. They are also a celebration of the transplant recipients and a way to honor the donors and family members who made their transplants possible.
Besides the athletes who attend, the games draw supporters including family and friends, living donors and donor families who donated the organs of deceased loved ones. More than 300 supporters from our area will be attending.
Alicia has had a contingent of family members for each of the games. But this year, for the first time, Alicia’s father Jim will not be attending. That’s because he himself is now awaiting a transplant. At age 45, he’s already had several serious heart attacks.
Two weeks ago, he was put on a waiting list for a heart transplant. He’s one of nearly 5,300 people in our region awaiting a lifesaving organ transplant (nationally, more than 99,000 are waiting)
No wonder this family is especially committed to organ donation.
"Everyone should be an organ donor," emphasizes Jim Goodchild. "You never know when a family member will need an organ. And organ transplants really work."
He’s optimistic about his own prospects.
"Hopefully, I’ll have a new heart in six to eight months," he says. "And I’m already looking forward to 2010 when I plan to be in the transplant games with my daughter."
Meanwhile, he’ll be cheering from home as his daughter competes in four events. This year, Team Philadelphia has 148 athletes, who range in age from 6 to 81. They’re from Philadelphia as well as eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.
They’ll be competing against teams from every state in the U.S. In all, a total of approximately 1,200 athletes — all of them transplant recipients — will be competing.
Team Philadelphia is organized by Gift of Life, a non-profit organ donation organization that coordinates donations and transplants in this area, as well as by the National Kidney Foundation of Delaware Valley.
Alicia has already proved her athletic prowess in the previous games. After winning the bronze in 2002, she was a medalist again in 2004. She competed in softball throw, basketball and badminton. She came home with two medals: a bronze in basketball and a silver in badminton.
In the 2006 games, Alicia, then 13, won a bronze in basketball, but the highlight was her first gold medal for badminton.
"That was exciting," says Alicia, who had tough competition from a girl from Florida who was a year older.
"But I beat her by two points," says the award-winning young athlete.
After the game, everyone gathered around as the winners were announced. Alicia’s medal was presented to her by her mother, Patti, as her whole family cheered.
Her medals — bronze, silver and gold — are displayed in a place of honor in a cabinet in the family’s living room.
"It makes us very proud that she’s able to do this," says her mom. "Once she wants to do something, she has a strong will."
She’ll undoubtedly show that strong will at this summer’s games, competing in basketball, swimming, bowling and tennis.
Like any serious athlete, Alicia has been training diligently for her four events. She plays basketball using a neighbor’s net, and she practices her tennis strokes at a nearby playground. She bowls at a bowling alley that’s also nearby, and swims at her uncle’s pool. In the fall, she already has plans to be on the soccer team at Philadelphia Academy Charter High School, where she’ll be in 10th grade.
Meanwhile, she’s been training for the games as often as possible, and in recent months she’s done some practice every day.
It comes quite naturally to a girl who’s always enjoyed sports. Together with other family members — she has two brothers and a sister — Alicia played basketball on the Mayfair Monarchs team. Then her mother got her a badminton net, and she started to play that game with her older brother Stephen. She was also on the swimming team at St. Christopher’s Elementary School.
She did all this despite having serious medical issues. At birth, her kidneys were fused together and she had a condition called dysplasia, which her parents found out when she was 1 month old. One kidney wasn’t functioning at all, and the other functioned at only 30 percent.
"We were told that she’d need a transplant at some point," says her mother, Patti Goodchild.
That point came when she was 8. Both her parents were a match as donors. Since her mother wasn’t working at the time, she was the one who would be the donor. Both of Alicia’s kidneys would be removed and one of her mother’s would be transplanted.
The surgeries took place on Nov. 8, 2000.
"Everything went well for both of us, and I was out of bed the same day," says Patti Goodchild.
Soon after that, she found out about the U.S. Transplant Games from a friend whose son also had a kidney transplant. She encouraged Alicia to participate. The entire Goodchild family — Alicia’s parents plus her two brothers and sister — all attended the games in 2001 and watched 9-year-old Alicia win a bronze medal for the softball throw.
The games always include a whole range of competitions: basketball, bowling, golf, track and field and much more. Similar to the Olympics, there is a gala Opening Ceremony with much fanfare. It even starts with a group of athletes bringing a torch into the main arena. Then each team is presented one by one.
Then the living donors also come onto the stage of the arena and are applauded. Then come the donor families: these are the relatives who donated the organs of a deceased loved one.
Later during the five days, there are special recognition ceremonies for the living donors and for the donor families. The living donors include family members like Patti Goodchild — but also complete strangers who have donated an organ out of sheer good will.
Overall, it’s a festive and celebratory five-day event, with supporters giving the athletes rousing applause at each competition.
Alicia, competing in four events, will surely be cheered. And she’s hoping to bring home more medals. But the rewards go well beyond the medals.
"I get to meet people my own age who have similar medical problems," she says. "We share stories and we really understand each other."
Then, too, there’s the sense of satisfaction that transplant recipients gain from proving they can meet challenges.
"I feel proud that I’m able to do this," says Alicia. "It shows me that I’m not held back by my transplant." ••
For information about the Gift of Life organ donor program, visit the Web site www.donors1.org or call 215-557-8090.