“Thankfully I received that amazing gift”: Transplant Australia Football Club player and Chairman Ante Kelic

Ante has PSC and Crohn’s disease and is a transplant recipient. He is the Chairman of Transplant Australia, and recently competed in the inaugural Transplant Football World Cup in Italy.

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The Transplant World Cup was amazing.

There was a big lead up to the Inaugural Transplant Football World Cup. We originally started planning for it in 2018 and then in 2020 it was meant to go ahead. Obviously, COVID-19 stopped the event in its tracks. Unfortunately, in late 2022, our club founder and chairman, Matty Hempstalk, passed away suddenly on the way home from Perth after visiting family. The entire transplant community and club members were in shock due to the sudden nature of his passing. Matty worked for Transplant Australia (TA) and being a kidney transplant recipient he was really passionate about transplant sports. He also loved football. He left a big void to fill.

After Matt’s passing, and when the Covid-19 restrictions loosened up, we weren’t sure if the World Cup would still go ahead. I was helping Matty organise the event prior to it being cancelled, so I put my hand up and said, “let’s make it happen.” With the support of Transplant Australia, we managed to get the club and events moving again. We had about 50-60 recipients from around Australia express interest in becoming involved in the club. From there, about 25-30 people attended the trials in Sydney. There was a large lead up in terms of preparation, and the tournament itself was a great experience.

To be at an international tournament – the first world cup for transplant recipients – and to meet all the other recipients from around the world was fantastic. From an Australian perspective, we’d never participated in an international soccer tournament like this before, so we didn’t know much about the quality of the players involved from other countries. We followed each other on social media, but that was the extent of it. It was good to meet everyone in person and share our respective experiences.

We’ve had a bit of a break following the World Cup, but there’s various aspects in terms of the club that we’re progressing. One of the roles is trying to build more sustainability and succession planning so the club doesn’t rely on a couple of people. We’re trying to build a working group of transplant recipients that want to get involved. We’re also looking at starting a women’s team. One of the difficulties we experience as a team is that we’re spread across a huge country. This compared to Europe, where they’re located a lot closer to each other makes regular events a little more challenging.

Overall, it was an eye-opening experience, and the quality of football on display was excellent. Some of the players we saw at the World Cup could quite possibility been at an A-League level.

I had a swollen foot in year 11 or 12.

Mum and Dad took me to the doctor who did some blood tests. The doctor determined that my liver function tests were abnormal. They sent me to a specialist who did a biopsy of my liver to see what on the issue was. That’s how it was discovered I had Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). About a year later. I had a persistently sore tummy and was generally feeling unwell.

I spoke to my specialist, who said, “we’ll get you into the hospital; you might be there for a couple days.” I thought it might have been food poisoning or something minor, because it felt like excruciating stomach cramps and pains. But I ended up being there for 5-6 weeks. After a multitude of tests and scans the medical team couldn’t work out what the problem was.

About two or three weeks after my admissions, they’d worked out that the issue was a perforation of the bowel (Meckels Diverticulum). I went from 84kgs to 54kgs in the space of four to five weeks. I was playing football for a senior team in the NPL. At that time of my life, I had aspirations to be a professional football player. Losing so much weight and strength was a big setback. When I had surgery to resect part of the bowel, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. After that, like many Crohn’s Disease patients, I cycled through different types of medications to treat the symptoms. This, on top of natural therapies and diets. I was diagnosed around the year 2000, when I was about 20 years old.

I was really malnourished, suffered from night blindness and my body wasn’t absorbing anything. I was losing weight and dealing with all the side effects from the steroid treatments to try and improve my health. in 2011 we had the whole bowel removed as it was covered in pseudo-polyps.

I lived with a stoma for a few years, before it was reversed in 2013. As a young person, when the specialist told me that I would potentially need a stoma – my response was, “no way”. I couldn’t fathom the fact that my intestine would protrude out of my abdomen. But after I had the surgery, it was a big relief. My body was given the time to heal. Believe it or not, it was the fittest I’d ever been in my life and was generally the best I’d felt. Having it reversed felt abnormal and, a few years later in 2015, I had the liver transplant for my PSC. Thankfully I received that amazing gift.

I had a few issues shortly after the transplant. My Crohn’s Disease symptoms – such as bathroom frequency and loose stools – continued, but after I had the transplant, I needed to undergo a few procedures to dilate the join from my donor’s bile duct to my native duct. I noticed when I went in for the ERCP procedure, I would come out and my Crohn’s symptoms would be non-existent for about two weeks. I asked my doctors what they were giving me to cause my symptoms to disappear.

I was advised by the Liver Transplant Unit that they were giving me a prophylactic antibiotic. I put two and two together and started doing more research around anti-map therapy. I started taking an antibiotic – Vancomycin – which I’ve been on for many years now, and it, along with the liver transplant, has transformed my health. I get flare ups every now and then but, apart from that, it’s been really good.

I’ve kept active and fit and try to do as much as I can.

My medical team didn’t look for Crohn’s Disease when I was diagnosed with PSC. This, despite the majority of people with PSC also living with IBD.

I remember when I was 15 or 16, I had bad stomach pains. They quickly sent me home and didn’t explore the cause in much depth. It was only when things got bad that I had a scope, and they found out what the issue was.

In the years prior to my transplant, my liver wasn’t really causing me any issues. I knew that my blood test results were abnormal — and I remember feeling a bit lethargic — but you get that with Crohn’s Disease as well. It definitely felt to me like Crohn’s was the harder issue to deal with, especially with the number of times I was going to the toilet each day. Socially, as a young person, I had a girlfriend at the time, and I didn’t want to do anything. I’d sit on the couch and want to stay home. It’s difficult – you want to be around a bathroom, and you don’t have energy. There were times when I could feel that my gut was permeable, and I could feel the toxins in my body. It was a weird feeling. I felt really unwell. You don’t have the motivation to get out and do stuff.

I was always attempting from a diet perspective to try and change things. Sometimes it would work, other times, not. I’d chart my blood tests on excel over many years which my doctors were really impressed with. If I’d go on a medication, I’d chart my full blood tests, liver function tests and my CRP’s. I’d plot a line and say, “this is where I changed my medication.” I’d try to correlate what was helping with what wasn’t. At one stage, I thought red meat was a big issue. I’d go off it, then go back on it, and nothing would change.

It was quite difficult to work out what the actual problem was.

Prior to being placed on the transplant list, I didn’t feel like I needed one.

Obviously the doctors, specialists and consultants at the Austin Hospital know what they’re looking at to pre-empt when a patient is going into liver failure. Over time, I started getting ascites – a swollen belly, edema in my feet, and was really thin in my torso. I had broad shoulders and was skinny, but I had this massive belly. I also experienced jaundice and was generally fatigued. Those were the main symptoms I experienced.

While waiting for the transplant, I was monitored. The care team wanted to make sure that I was well enough to receive the transplant. They told me not to play soccer if I wasn’t feeling well and, in terms of everything else, the main thing was to keep my phone on. Your life is on hold while you wait to receive the call. I continued to work, which was good for my mental health to have something to focus on.

After about four months of being on the transplant list, I received a call from the hospital to say that there was a possible viable liver for me. It was about 1130pm at night. We went to hospital very early the next morning. After all the tests, preps and swabs, they walked me down to the theatre, they had the anesthetist there, before telling me that the transplant wasn’t going to go ahead. From a mental perspective, the hardest part was knowing that I was quite high on the list. I knew I was unwell and due to receiving the call assumed I would be transplanted soon.

Every night at 1130pm, I’d expect to receive that same call. Mentally I deteriorated after that first dummy run. I’ve heard from people in the transplant support groups that they experienced four or five dummy runs. Thankfully, the transplant went ahead about three months later after the second call. There was a small hiccup as they nicked my bowel, but it’s something small in the scheme of things.

I feel like it made me stronger.

I was in hospital for about 20 days and spent a couple of months at home to recover following the procedure.

It was about four months until I was a bit more active, and in six months I was the top goal scorer at a football competition. During the recovery period, I was trying to take it gently – basically just walking. While recovering at hospital I was walking laps. I knew the quicker I was up and about, the quicker my recovery would be.

Through writing a letter to thank my donor I was advised that he was a father in his 60s and he was a community-minded person. They don’t provide too much information so you can’t find out who the donor is.

I’d love for them to understand the difference the transplant has made, and how I’m currently active and well, and have welcomed the birth of two children since my transplant.

I was in hospital for about 20 days and spent a couple of months at home to recover following the procedure.

I found that the support groups and forums were really good because you can talk to people who are going through similar issues. Pre-transplant, I went to the support groups at the Austin Hospital, which I found to be immensely helpful. While you’re in the thick of it, you’re seeing real life stories of people who have gotten on with life.

I’m still chairperson of the Transplant Australia Football Club, and I’m keen to stay involved and grow the club. Everyone that becomes involved loves it. There were members in the squad who struggled mentally to get back into sport after their transplant. Coming to the development camp, they were reinvigorated with life and determined to be active once again.

Some of them have signed up with their clubs again. Others are keen to get involved and grow the club. They share their stories, and there may be someone who’s suffering the same illness or experience they went through. It can be powerful for people to see recipients with similar interests and passions, who have come out the other side.

To learn more about the Transplant Australia Football Club, visit here.

To learn more about the PSC Support Australia, visit here:

To share your story, visit here