By BILL LOTHIAN
THAT OLD CHESTNUT about football being “more important than life or death” had never seemed more fatuous...
Even briefly discussing some mutual sporting connections with Calum Elliot just a month or so after this former Hearts footballer’s sevenhour liver transplant seemed a trifle trite.
Although, we did confirm that his cousin is Gordon Ross, the former Scotland stand off, and that his uncle, Ian Ross, continues to pick up Masters squash titles around the globe before addressing the task in hand.
Calum had requested some assistance in thanking the people who diagnosed his condition of primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic disease affecting bile ducts that can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. There is no cure and only a transplant can suffice, provided a suitable donor can be found.
At the moment nothing - apart from family and health - is more important than getting that message out to the man who was signed for Hearts from Salvesens’ Boys Club by then chief scout and star-maker John Murray as a
are in his debt, he says, as are organ donors. All have a special place in his heart.
“It’s been quite a year. Football has not been massive, certainly not as important as family and health. But a nice distraction nonetheless” is how the 38-year-old sums up a situation which saw his health deteriorate last year having been diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, aged 12.
Calum added: “It’s been a difficult period culminating, eventually, in a transplant.
“I must have obviously been quite unwell to have had it (a transplant) so quickly.
“I’m just so thankful and I’ll keep listening to the doctors, dieticians, transplant coordinators etc.
“At the same time it must be really raw for the donor’s family who have lost someone and can’t imagine what they are going through.”
There is no getting away, though, from the fact that football has given him an identity and a platform to highlight the benefits of organ donation.
Maybe, too, sport and the fitness it engenders has given him an added chance on the recovery scale?
hospital was to climb a set of stairs. should have done it in the company of a physio but as it was a weekend I did it by myself.
“It really is about taking things day-to-day though. don’t want to get ahead of myself so set mini targets.
