Pete McKee reunites with donor's widow at launch of Transplant Games in Sheffield
Sheffield is being urged to rally behind organ donation as the city prepares to host the Westfield Health British Transplant Games in August 2026, amid a record number of people waiting for lifesaving transplants.
More than 8,000 people across the UK are currently on the national transplant waiting list, including 146 in South Yorkshire, according to NHS Blood and Transplant.
The figures were revealed as transplant recipients, donor families and supporters gathered at the Canon Medical Arena for the official launch of next summer’s Games.
The event, returning to Sheffield for the first time since 2013, will see more than 2,500 participants compete across 26 sports between August 6 and 9.
Among those at the launch was Sheffield artist Pete McKee, who received a liver transplant in 2017, and Karen Piotr, the widow of Pete’s donor, Mark.
Pete will also be competing in golf at the Games, and will reunite with Karen, whose late husband donated organs to eight people.
The pair shared their story of the ripple effect of organ donation.
“How do you condense 30 years of a life into two or three pages?”
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Pete said he felt compelled to write a letter of thanks soon after his operation.
“I wanted to get in contact. At first, I didn’t know who had received the letter because everything is anonymous,” he said.
“But I wanted to make sure they knew what a big difference they’d made to my life, and my children’s and grandchildren’s.”
Karen said she never expected to receive such a personal note.
“It was a handwritten letter, which was quite amazing. I remember thinking, gosh - someone’s taken the time,” she said.
Usually, donor families and recipients do not meet until years after a transplant, if at all. But a chance moment led Karen to suspect that Pete might be the man who received Mark’s liver.
“It was quite strange - someone asked if I’d seen ‘that man on Look North’. So I googled Pete, and then I wrote a letter and asked the question bluntly,” Karen said.
Pete added: “Normally it takes two or three years of correspondence. I had my transplant in May, and by December we were meeting each other.”
Pete described the emotional turmoil of waiting for a transplant - an experience familiar to thousands still on the waiting list.
“You’re always in limbo,” he said.
“I had been called in one time, and it wasn’t a match, so you’re never sure.”
He said the transplant transformed his life overnight.
“I woke up that day with a new world and a new life. I feel a lot fitter and better since the operation.”
Since then, Pete has thrown himself into the Transplant Games and even taken up golf.
“Golf has been an absolute revelation. It keeps you fit - a full round is a five or six-mile walk. It’s more frustrating than fun sometimes, but I’m addicted. I try to play once or twice a week now.”
Karen joked that Mark, an avid golfer, would have approved.
“He’d go round getting a tiny ball into a tiny hole 18 times. I am a trophy widow. I was pleased when Pete decided to take up golf,” she said.
Their connection, Pete said, is full of coincidences.
“There’s a lot of serendipity between me and Mark. His surname means Peter in Polish. He loved the Everly Pregnant Brothers.
Karen added: “The Christmas before he passed away, he drove me mad playing one of their new songs on repeat.”
She later realised that though the pair had never met, Mark had been well aware of band member Pete.
The Games aim to celebrate the lives of transplant recipients while encouraging more people - particularly within Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities - to sign the NHS Organ Donor Register.
Only seven per cent of donors currently come from these groups, despite far higher levels of need.
Dr Paul Harden, Chair of Transplant Active, warned that around 1,000 people die every year while waiting for a transplant.
“This underlines the importance of signing the NHS Organ Donor Register now and talking to your loved ones,” he said.
“One person can save up to nine lives.”
Many of the 2026 events will take place around Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.
Steve Purdham, Chairman of long-term Games sponsor Westfield Health, said: “Next August in Sheffield, we’re hosting more than a sporting event - we’re igniting a movement. The simplest conversation can save the most lives.”
For Karen and Pete, the importance of that conversation is deeply personal.
“We always talked about donation,” Karen said. “Mark and I gave blood regularly. I knew he’d want to help up to nine people.”
And Pete says the impact of that decision continues to ripple outward.
“We talk about the ripple effect. I’m married, I have grandkids. One organ changed not just my life, but so many others. That’s the power of donation,” he said.