Just weeks after taking up table tennis, Miao Cowen celebrates medal success at UK Transplant Games

After 99 days in hospital, the Chinese native returned to where she now calls home in Belfast.

To help with her rehab, Miao was advised to take up sport – which meant in June she started playing table tennis and at the recent UK Transplant Games in Coventry, the 46-year-old won the silver medal and also picked up a bronze in the 3km walk.

But that’s not even half the story. Miao, who studied nursing at Army School in China, moved to London but didn’t like the Big Smoke, settling in Belfast after a chance visit with a friend and met her husband Stephen at a U2 tribute band in the Empire Music Hall.

“I'm from northeast China, a city called Shenzhen,” she said. “I came here 23 years ago as a student.

"I went to London first as a student. I couldn't get proper practice, people in London are very busy, nobody really has time for you.

“For me to learn English, I needed to speak, and I needed to practice.

“One summer I came here to visit my friend, they were in Queen's University.

“My friend took me to the Chinese church on the Lisburn Road, I met a lot of Chinese people and local people as well.

“I made a lot of friends, they came to me regularly, to my house, and helped me with my English, so I stayed.

“I always wanted to travel because, growing up, my dad was an alcoholic, I had a very difficult childhood. I left home when I was very young, 16 or maybe even younger,

“I went to army school, but it was for nursing. I always wanted to explore.

"After army school, I got a little bit more courageous, and I wanted to see the world.”

Miao didn’t play any sport growing up due to her undetected medical condition.

“We did P.E in school but I couldn't understand why I couldn't run as fast as my peers,” she added. “Even though I tried to get up early, do exercise, I just couldn't.

"I didn't have the ability, but I didn't know why until one day in army school I was running in the morning and suddenly fainted.

“I was taken to hospital and told I had cardiomyopathy, after that, I lived a normal life, but not as active as others.”

After settling in Belfast, Miao worked as an interpreter, owned a coffee shop and a takeaway business before needing her operation.

“Nothing was wrong up to three or four years ago and it deteriorated so fast,” she said. “This time last year, I couldn't walk 20 metres without stopping. If I wanted to walk to Stormont one door down, I'd have to turn back.

“My consultant in City Hospital, when I had my son in the Royal, they knew I have this problem, so they did some tests.

“I've been seeing the consultant every six months, and it's been fine.

"I've been taking medication, but in the last few years, she thinks if nothing is going to work and this is the last thing we could try, she said I was the best candidate for this type of operation because I didn't have any other complaints.

“For months and months, I was so frightened – at the time you feel powerless.

“I thought “I've done my part, my son is a grown up”. You prepare for everything. I made a video for my son Anthony just in case.

“I had to go to England as it couldn't be done here. On the 10th of August I went into hospital and the 28th of September I had the operation.

“My husband came to visit once a week. It was tough – my son came twice during that period of time, my mum went once too.

“Even though I was asleep for around 12 days, with my chest open, my brain was actually working, I had all these dreams.

“I was up in heaven one minute and in hell the next with all these weird dreams that I still remember so clearly, sometimes I couldn't sleep, I didn't know what was a dream and what was reality.

“After the operation, it was really tough. I had all these tubes, I wasn't allowed to eat and drink.

“They were giving me medication in a tube through my neck.

“For the first three weeks, I was thinking if I knew what was going to happen, I wouldn't have wanted to go through it.”

“It was so scary. After I left hospital and gradually got better, I started to realise how wonderful it is that I'm still alive.”

It was in the hospital waiting room that Miao decided to take up sport.

“One day I went to Freeman Hospital for my review appointment and outside the treatment room I met a guy who had a double lung transplant and he told me about the British Transplant Games that happen every year,” she explained. “He said “you should go.”

"I told him I’d never done any sport in my life – what should I do?

“He really encouraged me. He said “I never played basketball before but now I’m a basketball star and I’m going to the World Transplant Games as well”.

“I started to look up information and I talked to a nurse as well and he said it was great fun it is and that I should go.

“When I was thinking what should I do, my mum had played table tennis I thought maybe this is a good sport for me so that I can practice with her.

“My husband was very helpful. He did some research and found Glenburn table tennis club and got in touch with Neil and Herbie and sent them an email.

“They came back and said no problem we’ll provide her with coaching, we’ll teach her how to play and help her as much as we can so that is how I got involved and this club is close to me because I live over in Stormont area.

“I think it was 10th June (2023) when I came to Glenburn and I didn’t even know how to hold the bat and now I can play which is just amazing.

“Every day I come here I think to myself I don’t know how blessed and how lucky I am to be here with all the club members who are very supportive.”

A few weeks after taking up table tennis, Miao was winning medals at the UK Transplant Games.

“It was all about taking part, because of the level of coaching they provided for me where they taught me everything from the technique of playing to the strategy,” she said. “From how to take a rest to being calm, they taught me everything – it was a crash course.

“I did well because all my opponents had been there quite a few years.

“I couldn’t believe it – I didn’t sleep for about three night because I wasn’t good at anything sport or music. I didn’t have any confidence of myself so when I won a medal I just couldn’t believe it.

“Every time I think about it my face just lights up.

“I’m very blessed for this opportunity, my donor and his family, all the NHS staff, the doctors, the nurses and the people from the club.

"I just couldn’t believe it, it is amazing – I just don’t have a word to describe this.

“I often think this is too good to be true. I am sometimes fearful that this is just a dream it’s not even reality.

“I talk to my husband a lot and he constantly reassures me this is our life, and we are having a good life here.”