When Catharine Hall had a kidney transplant aged 13, she never dreamt she would be on a podium clutching a gold medal almost 30 years later.

But at the World Transplant Games, on Australia's Gold Coast, the Bradley Stoke badminton player proved she has lived life to the full.

Ms Hall, 43, had the transplant when doctors discovered she had been born with just one kidney.

She said: "I kept falling asleep in lessons and not keeping up with school work, showing signs of anaemia. Thankfully I was never on dialysis and my mum was a tissue match so I was able to have her kidney."

It wasn't until she was 18 that the former nurse, who works as a carer, found a passion for badminton.

Ms Hall, who lives in Stevens Walk, said: "I've been to every British Games bar two and I've been going to the World Transplant Games since 2001."