Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Simon Keith | ||
Date of birth | 25 May 1965 | ||
Place of birth | Lewes, England | ||
Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||
Position(s) | Forward | ||
Youth career | |||
1971–1983 | Lansdowne Soccer Association | ||
College career | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1984–1985 | Victoria Vikings | ||
1987–1989 | UNLV Rebels | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1983–1984 | Bromley FC | ||
1989 | Victoria Vistas | 22 | (5) |
1990 | Montreal Supra | 9 | (1) |
1990 | Winnipeg Fury | 11 | (0) |
1989–1990 | Cleveland Crunch (indoor) | 52 | (6) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Simon Sean Keith CM [1] (born 25 May 1965) is a British/Canadian soccer player. He is the first athlete to have played professional sports after having undergone a heart transplant.
To raise awareness for organ donation, he founded the Simon Keith Foundation in 2011.
Simon Keith was born on 25 May 1965, to David Keith, [2] [3] and Sylvia. [4] The family moved to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1967. [2] He played his youth soccer for the Victoria Boys Club and later the Lansdowne Evening Optimists.[ citation needed ] He went to Mount Douglas Secondary School [2] from 1981 to 1983, where he played on a soccer team with notable teammates Jeff Mallett and John Hughes.[ citation needed ]
He subsequently gained a scholarship to play soccer at the University of Victoria [2] for the Vikings soccer team[ citation needed ] where in 1984 he was diagnosed with myocarditis, a deterioration of the heart muscle. [2]
In 1986, he was the recipient of a heart transplant, the donor being 17 year old Jonathan Edward, from Newport, Wales, who had died while playing soccer. [5] The surgery was done in Papworth Hospital outside London [6] by Dr. Mohsin Hakim and Sir Terence English. [7] He then became the first athlete to have played professional sports after having undergone a heart transplant. [5]
Following recovery from his surgery, Keith moved to Las Vegas in 1987 to attend the University of Las Vegas where he played soccer for the UNLV Rebels with his older brother Adam. Keith won numerous awards at UNLV including the Student-Athlete of the Conference and USA's Most Courageous Athlete. Keith was the number one overall pick in the 1989 professional indoor soccer draft. [8] by the Cleveland Crunch of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). Keith also played professionally for the Victoria Vistas, the Winnipeg Fury and Montreal Supra of the Canadian Soccer League. [9]
At the age of 50 he said:
Within me beats the heart of an incredible young Welsh athlete, whose loss of life enabled me to live mine. Since receiving this gift of life, I have dedicated my time advocating for organ donation awareness and the benefits of living an active lifestyle following an organ transplant. [10]
Keith spoke at the White House in 2016 as part of President Obama's Organ Summit. Keith has also spoken at the Canadian and British Parliaments and travels the world telling his story and inspiring others. Keith is now the CEO of the Simon Keith Foundation, [11] founded to increase awareness of organ donor awareness and educate transplant recipients. Keith is one of the longest-living heart transplant recipients and has lived the majority of his life with his second heart. In March 2019, Keith underwent his second heart transplant surgery along with a kidney transplant.[ citation needed ]
Keith belongs to the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame and the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was honored as Canada's Humanitarian of the Year. In 2022, Keith was awarded the prestigious Silver Rebel Award as a member of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Athletic Hall of Fame. [ citation needed ]
In March 2019 he received a second heart transplant and a new kidney in San Diego. [12]
To raise awareness for organ donation, he founded the Simon Keith Foundation in 2011. [12] Since its founding The Simon Keith Foundation has raised millions of dollars in support of the families of youths who have undergone organ transplants as well as raise awareness for organ donation. In 2021 The Simon Keith Foundation announced two scholarships. In partnership with the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, The Simon Keith Foundation will award a scholarship to a graduating high school senior whose life has been affected by organ donation or transplantation. In Canada, The Simon Keith Foundation has partnered with the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Victoria to offer a similar scholarship. Both awards will be endowed and awarded annually in perpetuity.
Keith was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2022 "for his inspirational advocacy of organ donation and for his dedicated support for transplant recipients." [1]
Keith is married to Kelly and they have three children. [2] [13]
Organ donation is the process when a person allows an organ of their own to be removed and transplanted to another person, legally, either by consent while the donor is alive or dead with the assent of the next of kin.
Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be transported from a donor site to another location. Organs and/or tissues that are transplanted within the same person's body are called autografts. Transplants that are recently performed between two subjects of the same species are called allografts. Allografts can either be from a living or cadaveric source.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The 332-acre (134 ha) campus is about 1.6 mi (2.6 km) east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the Shadow Lane Campus, just east of the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, which houses both School of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine. UNLV's law school, the William S. Boyd School of Law, is the only law school in the state.
Ralph Louis Engelstad was an American businessman who owned the Imperial Palace casino-hotels in Las Vegas and in Biloxi, Mississippi. He also owned the Kona Kai motel in Las Vegas, which later became the Klondike Hotel and Casino. He was also the donor for the construction of the $104 million Ralph Engelstad Arena for his alma mater, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and another arena bearing his name in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Engelstad was also a co-developer of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Engelstad was one of the very few independent casino-hotel owners in Las Vegas.
Richard Marvin Hansen is a Canadian track and field athlete, activist, and philanthropist for people with disabilities. Following a pickup truck crash at the age of 15, Hansen sustained a spinal cord injury and became a paraplegic. Hansen is most famous for his Man in Motion World Tour, in which he circled the globe in a wheelchair to raise funds for charity. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. He was one of the final torchbearers in the 1988 Winter Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was profiled and spoke during the 2010 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony.
Kidney transplant or renal transplant is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage kidney disease (ESRD). Kidney transplant is typically classified as deceased-donor or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the donor organ. Living-donor kidney transplants are further characterized as genetically related (living-related) or non-related (living-unrelated) transplants, depending on whether a biological relationship exists between the donor and recipient.
The Las Vegas Quicksilvers were an American soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) during the 1977 season. The team was based in Las Vegas, Nevada and played their home games at Las Vegas Stadium. After the 1977 season, the team relocated to San Diego and became the San Diego Sockers.
The College of Southern Nevada (CSN) is a public community college in Clark County, Nevada. The college has more than 2,500 teaching and non-teaching staff and is the largest public college or university in Nevada. It is part of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Jennifer C. Harman is an American professional poker player. She has won two World Series of Poker bracelets in open events, one of only four women to have done so.
Derrick Morris was, at the time of his death, Europe's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient, living 25 years after the transplant performed by Sir Magdi Yacoub in 1980. He died from an illness that was not heart or transplant related.
"Baby" Joe Mesi is an American retired boxer and Democratic Party politician from Tonawanda, New York. During his career, he defeated former world champion Vassily Jirov as well as former title challengers Bert Cooper, Monte Barrett, DaVarryl Williamson, and Jorge Luis González.
The Pinball Hall of Fame is a museum for pinball machines that opened in Las Vegas, Nevada, in November 2009. It is located at 4925 S. Las Vegas Boulevard. The museum is a project of the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club, and it features pinball machines from all eras, including some very rare machines such as Williams' Black Gold, Bally's Pinball Circus and Recreativos Franco's Impacto. It features nearly 700 different pinball games, including some classic video arcade games and other novelty machines of the past and present.
Advanced Technologies Academy (A-TECH/ATA) is a magnet public high school in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It focuses on integrating technology with academics for students in grades 9-12. The magnet school program was founded in 1994 and is part of the Clark County School District. The first year included only 9th and 10th grade, adding a grade each year. The first graduating class was 1997, and the first graduating class with all four years of attendance was 1998. The magnet school focuses on computer and technology related study fields.
Alan Mayer is an American retired soccer goalkeeper. He played professionally in the North American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League and earned six caps with the United States men's national soccer team.
Jácint Simon is a Hungarian former swimmer, who specialized in middle-distance freestyle events. He represented Hungary at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and also trained for the swim team at Ferencvárosi Torna Club in Budapest under his longtime coach Csaba Sós.
MOHAN Foundation is a not-for-profit, registered non-government charity organisation in India that works in the field of deceased organ donation and transplantation. MOHAN is an acronym for Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network. It has offices in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Jaipur and information centers at Kerala and Imphal.
Thomas N. Wiesner, also known by his nickname "Big Dog", was an American politician and businessman. Wiesner initially played football for the Wisconsin Badgers from 1958 to 1960, before moving to Las Vegas in 1963. Seven years later, at the age of 31, he became the youngest person to be elected to the Clark County Commission. Wiesner served two terms before losing re-election in 1978. Wiesner was also an owner of the Marina Hotel, which later became the MGM Grand resort.
Freddie Banks is an American former collegiate and professional basketball player. Banks attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is a member of the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame. Banks was the first pick of the second round of the 1987 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons.
Organ transplantation in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is regulated by India's Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 and is facilitated by the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN) of the Government of Tamil Nadu and several NGOs. Tamil Nadu ranks first in India in deceased organ donation rate at 1.8 per million population, which is seven times higher than the national average.
Organ donation in India is regulated by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994. The law allows both deceased and living donors to donate their organs. It also identifies brain death as a form of death. The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) functions as the apex body for activities of relating to procurement, allotment and distribution of organs in the country.