Liver transplant recipient completes the 26.2 miles
A Dundonald man has become what is believed to be the first liver transplant recipient to run the Belfast marathon.
Philip Cairnduff completed the 26.2 mile course in just under three hours, 32 minutes.
He was running the race in memory of the unknown woman whose liver he received.
Philip, 29, was on the brink of death after he suffered a sudden liver failure in 2004. Then aged 18, he had just returned from a trip to Africa with Stormont Presbyterian Church.
Philip told the News Letter yesterday: “I feel exhausted and delighted. There was no feeling like crossing that finish line.”
The former world transplant games silver medallist in the 5km race said that at points during yesterday’s much longer distance he had found it intimidating and gruelling.
His parents Donald and Jennifer were there to congratulate their son after the run.
The reasons for Philip’s liver failure have never been entirely understood and the doctors concluded it was an unidentified form of hepatitis.
He became ill rapidly and was flown to London, where his liver stopped. He would have been dead within hours had an organ not become available just in time. Philip only knows that the donor was a woman aged 48, and he has felt indebted to her ever since.