Echo Women in Sport award: Mairéad O'Mahony collected five medals on the world stage in Perth

TO win one medal at a World Championship Games is a dream for many, but to win five is beyond that.

However, that’s what Cork’s Mairéad O’Mahony did at the World Transplant Games in Perth.

Mairéad from Berrings helped the 14-strong Irish team end the Games with an impressive haul of 17 medals.

Her impressive medal haul consisted of two gold, two silver, and a bronze medal. Golds came in the 800m and shot putt, winning silver in the javelin and 5km events and bronze in the 1500m.

And for this magnificent achievement Mairéad, who works for Irish Life as a Wealth Management Consultant meeting PTSB clients, is the April winner of The Echo Women in Sport Awards.

When she was 17, Mairéad was a talented athlete, but an acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosis scuppered her plans of international success. But she received a bone marrow transplant from her donor brother Willie Lyons when she was 18, which gave her the gift of life.

Mairéad said the day she put on the Irish kit was emotional. She called Willie to thank him for the bone marrow that saved her life. “This isn’t something we live and breathe, because I’m so healthy now I often forget what we went through all those years ago,” Mairéad said.

“However, there are times when I am stopped in my tracks and reminded of how lucky I am. We are all just getting on with life, but I had to ring my brother that day and say ‘thank you’. I told him ‘I won’t be saying this all the time, but thank you, because you gave me the gift of life’.

“For me, the tough part was the chemo and radiation before the transplant,” she said. “My own marrow was killed off by the treatment. For Willie, it was having surgery that involved drilling into the lower back. It’s unreal to think that my blood is made by his bone marrow.

“I feel really lucky that I had an immediate family member who was a match because that’s not always the case for everyone,” she added.

Participating in the games was always an ambition of Mairéad’s but that’s easier said than done. Once she got the call to take part her first port of call was to reunite with her former coach John Meagher.

“I rang John, who was my coach 26 years ago, and asked if there was any chance he could show me how to pick up a shot putt and javelin again,” Mairéad laughed.

I had to pinch myself when I thought about how I was going to be representing my country."

Mairéad expressed her gratitude to her family, including her 11-year-old daughter, Isabella, and husband, Tony, for all their support ahead of the games. She also thanked John and personal trainer, Megan Willis, from Athena, for getting her fit.

"I’m really grateful for the support,” she said, “My story is a very positive one and it would be great if it gave someone out there, going through the same thing, hope. The reason it’s important I told my story is because I believe that awareness is so important.”

Speaking on the experience of being at the games Mairéad said: “It was unbelievable to be there and taking part. The first day when I won the silver medal in the 5km we had to wait for an hour or so for the result to be confirmed. When they called out bronze I thought that was it. But then they said and in second place... Ireland and I just screamed.

I couldn’t believe it and little did I know at that stage what was going to happen in the coming days. 

"I then won a gold in the shot putt and when the bronze was added they were all slagging me that I had to get it to complete the set.”

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

But she wasn’t finished there and on the last day, Mairéad added two more medals. The first was gold in the 800m, an event she wasn’t a favourite for as she likes to run long distances rather than short. But late on she caught the favourite, a Polish runner, and passed her and when Mairéad saw she wasn’t responding she drove on to land her second gold.

All amazing achievements, but in some ways pale a little when you see how she won silver in the javelin.

Basically, you get three throws and you have to be in the top eight to get three more to be in contention for a medal.

Mairéad’s first throw was 10 metres and she knew that was well out of contention. But she regrouped and improved to get into the final.

But her story wasn’t finished there as with two throws to go she was out of contention for a medal. That’s until David Fenton intervened. He was there through a family connection to support the Irish team.

David lives in Perth and coaches javelin to young athletes. So with two throws to go, he suggested to Mairéad she change from five steps in her run-up to three, something most athletes wouldn’t dream of doing in the middle of a competition.

But Mairéad gave it a go and with her final attempt threw the javelin 19.74 metres, almost doubling her first throw, to land the silver medal.

That summed up Mairéad’s week – an unbelievable one – with many memories she will cherish forever, but watch this space as she’s not finished yet and hopes to continue representing Ireland at Transplant Games in the coming years.

On these displays, there will be a few more medals heading to Berrings in the coming years.