Badminton has 'given me everything' after transplant

Welsh teenager Archie Morton says he 'doesn't know where he'd be without badminton', after winning gold at the World Transplant Games.

The 17-year-old from Llandrindod Wells took top honours in the junior singles in October 2025 and he is now setting his sights on this year's European Transplant Games in Holland.

Born without his left kidney, and with only 25% function is his right, Morton required a transplant in December 2021, with his father Adam supplying the donor kidney.

After a lengthy recovery period, Archie joined his father for a casual game of badminton a year later and 'it snowballed' with the teenager going on to take gold in Dresden, Germany.

"Day to day I've always been a sporty kid," said Morton.

"I played football, did loads of sports but then with kidney failure you don't really notice it because it's a slow gradual slope and then you just drop off a cliff.

"Energy levels go from an all-time high running around for 90 minutes to barely being able to get out of bed in the morning.

"Everything aching, appetite goes, anything I ate just made me feel sick, I couldn't move, nothing."

As Morton continued to deteriorate, he needed the transplant, the day that his dad Adam says they knew would come.

"We knew before he was born that there was going to be kidney issues which was quite stressful, because you didn't know what the outcome of that was going to be," Adam Morton told BBC Sport Wales.

"He was very poorly to start with, going down with pneumonia when he was first born and was in intensive care for a very long period of time.

"We weren't sure if he was going to pull through at that stage.

"It was all down to whether or not he had a growth spurt as to whether or not his kidney could keep up with his body and whether it could still perform at the rate its needed to.

"Unfortunately his kidney didn't keep up and things started to move very quickly."

After testing the family, Adam was deemed the best match for Archie and so begun the long process of trying to avoid infections so the transplant could be completed.

The first time the doctors went to perform the surgery, they discovered an infection in Archie.

"That was a big moment for us, I found it quite destructive and Archie struggled with it too," said Adam.

"We had to go home then and we had to make a decision then.

"I decided to stay isolating because that made me available for a cancellation.

"Obviously a lot of operations weren't going ahead because of Covid, so it was worth the risk, so I didn't go back to work.

"I stayed isolating and they got in touch with us, having cleared up Archie's infection, and we went back in on 21st December, with the operation going ahead successfully."

Archie says he's forever grateful to his dad for the sacrifice he made.

"I wouldn't be here without him," he said.

"It's such a big thing to give up a kidney for someone. I get he's my dad, but that's still such a big commitment.

"I couldn't be more grateful for anything.

"The transplant was such a rejuvenating thing for me, it's given me my energy back, my appetite, the opportunity to get back into the things I love, it fully changed my life."

Archie is hoping to forge a career in medicine in the future, drawing on his own experiences as a patient to strengthen his bedside manner.

"I'd like to think I'm quite academic and personally I feel as though with all the stuff I've been through, I know all the difference a good and caring doctor can make.

"You walk into some hospitals and it's a barren wasteland and you just know all it takes is that one person with a smile on their face who asks if you're okay, if you want a cuppa, a sandwich anything.

"I know how much of a difference that makes and I know personally having experienced that from one side that I can make the difference on the other."

And as for his badminton ambitions?

"I'm not expecting to become world champion at some point but to be able to carry on on this journey, staying in touch with the people I enjoy playing with, the friends I've made along the way especially with the Transplant Games.

"My kidney transplant has allowed me to meet so many brilliant people who I would never have met, lifelong friends.

"Hopefully my badminton can progress into national competitions and then see where that goes but for now Transplant world champion, it doesn't get much better than that."