UK hosts European Transplant and Dialysis Games for first time in Oxford

Team GB are one of the 25 teams taking part in the event

More than 400 athletes from across Europe will be competing in Oxford this week as a major tournament comes to the UK for the first time.

The city is hosting the European Transplant and Dialysis Games until Sunday.

The event features multi-sport competition among organ transplant recipients and kidney dialysis patients from 25 European countries.

It also includes several sports from badminton and tenpin bowling to darts.

An opening ceremony was held at the Sheldonian Theatre on Sunday.

The event is organised by Transport Sport, a UK charity raising awareness of organ donation and the importance of staying active post-transplant.

The charity's chairman Paul Harden, who is also a consultant at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, said the games were also "a huge boost" to participants and their families, and demonstrate that "they really got back to getting on with life".

Cyril Del Pistoia is one of this year's competitors and his participation to the event comes 10 years after a bone marrow transplant.

He said the transplant helped him survive after he was diagnosed with leukaemia and this year he decided to travel from Los Angeles to take part in the games.

"It means a lot, it means you can finally compete with athletes that understand you," he said.

He will be competing for France in the badminton.

The games were first staged in Athens in 2000 and have subsequently been held every two years in nine different European countries.

The Sheldonian Theatre hosted the opening ceremony on Sunday

Organ transplant recipients and kidney dialysis patients from 25 European countries are taking part in the event

More than 400 athletes will be competing