Paul Albert, a lung and kidney recipient from North Catasauqua, won a gold medal in golf doubles and a silver medal in golf singles during the Transplant Games, which were held July 5-10 in Birmingham, Ala.

The event is held every other year as a celebration of life and donation, featuring athletes and teammates who are living donors, organ transplant recipients and bone marrow, cornea and tissue transplant recipients. The 2024 games were aligned with the Gift of Life Donor Program’s 50th anniversary.

Gift of Life is using this milestone to register 50,000 new organ donors to save more lives. The goal of the games is to showcase the healthy, vibrant lives made possible by donation. It also serves as a way to thank donor heroes who have selflessly given the gift of life.

Team Philadelphia featured five members from Northampton County. They were among the more than 130 total attendees from the region, which includes Delaware, southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

The Olympic-style competition included sports such as track and field, swimming, basketball and more. The team was filled with members of all ages and abilities, ranging from young children to adults.

Members of Team Philadelphia brought home 125 total medals in all age groups — 70 gold, 30 silver and 25 bronze.

Gift of Life Donor Program, founded in 1974 and headquartered in Philadelphia, is the federally designated organ procurement organization for eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. It works with 126 acute care hospitals and 12 transplant centers in its region, as well as hundreds of transplant centers throughout the country, to provide the most comprehensive array of services available in the United States to the donation and transplantation community.

Gift of Life has coordinated 14,196 donors and 39,469 organs for transplant, the most of any organ procurement organization in the country since the inception of the national donation system in 1988. Overall, Gift of Life has coordinated more than 59,000 organs and more than 2 million tissue transplants since its founding.

One organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, and a tissue donor can improve the lives of 100 others. In honor of its 50 years of service, Gift of Life is rallying the community to sign up 50,000 more organ donors and provide hope to the thousands waiting for a transplant.

Learn more and sign up at donors1.org/50th.