Golden girl Lesley gets an MBE to add to medal haul

Published on Friday 29 July 2011 11:43

Volunteer and Capital athlete Lesley Forrest is celebrating being honoured with an MBE.

Mrs Forrest was given the award in June for her voluntary service to transplant sports. In the same month, the kidney transplant recipient won a gold medal at the World Transplant Games in Gothenburg.

Mrs Forrest, 54, from Newington, received a kidney transplant in 1996 after she was diagnosed with Alport Syndrome and now volunteers for Transplant Sport UK.

Born and raised in Edinburgh, Mrs Forrest was educated at St Margaret's School for Girls. When she left school she joined the finance department at Edinburgh Council before moving on to her role as a finance administrator at Edinburgh University where she has worked for the last 30 years.

Mrs Forrest married in 1981 and had her first son, Mark, in 1987. Three years later twins Michael and Amy were born.

Although Mrs Forrest enjoyed sports at school, it was when the children were young that she started to play sports again. "I used to play tennis with the children and take them swimming," she said. "I really enjoyed it but I was too busy with family life to consider playing a sport for myself."

Following her kidney transplant in 1996, Mrs Forrest decided to make an effort to improve her personal fitness in a bid to aid her recovery process.

A year later, in 1997, her cousin, a fellow transplant patient, invited her to the British Transplant Games. She took part in the swimming and decided to get involved with Transplant Sport UK.

The commitments of family life, work and getting back to a good standard of health meant that Mrs Forrest could not do as much voluntary work as she would have liked to and it wasn't until 2006, when her children were older, that she was really able to immerse herself in her athletics.

In 2007, she competed for Team GB in the British Transplant Games in Edinburgh, winning gold, silver and bronze medals. "I can still remember the feeling of winning gold. I had trained so hard but I didn't expect it," she said.

This June has been a particularly exciting month for Mrs Forrest having won both gold and bronze medals at the Games in Gothenburg and receiving her MBE.

She recalls receiving the letter to inform her of her MBE.

She said: "I don't think my feet have touched the ground yet, it's very humbling. We only do this to raise awareness for people, not for ourselves."

Mrs Forrest is heading to Belfast on August 4 to compete in the British Transplant Games as a member of the Edinburgh team and she plans to continue her voluntary work for Transplant Sport UK for as long as possible. "We are aware that so many people still need our help," she said.