Ex-rugby prop urges South Africans, including Joburg residents, to register as organ donors after life-saving transplant

Former rugby prop Rhys Thomas urges South Africans to register as organ donors after successful heart transplant

Rhys Thomas, a 43-year-old former professional rugby player, has appealed to South Africans including residents of Johannesburg to register as organ donors after receiving a life-saving heart transplant in Cape Town.

From professional sport to life-threatening illness

Thomas rose through the ranks as a prop and played for the Wales national rugby union team. His career ended in 2012 when, at 29 years old, he suffered a massive heart attack during training.

Despite undergoing two heart surgeries in the United Kingdom, Thomas developed end-stage heart failure. Doctors fitted a battery-operated left ventricular assist device to help his heart pump, but this, he and his medical team said, provided time but not quality of life. According to Cape Town cardiac surgeon Dr Willie Koen, the device left Thomas unable to swim or shower normally and tethered to batteries.

Struggles with mental health and return to South Africa

After years of depression and addiction following the loss of his playing career and identity, Thomas’s friends flew him to the Netcare Akeso Stepping Stones in Cape Town for inpatient treatment for addiction and underlying mental health conditions.

Thomas later returned to South Africa from the UK; he now lives in Cape Town permanently. He said he left the UK because UK doctors had concerns about performing transplant surgery and his chances of survival afterwards. He also said he had to leave his children in the UK when he returned.

The transplant and recovery

Thomas said he received a phone call from Dr Koen one morning informing him a heart was available and asking if he could reach the hospital by 10:30. He described being nervous and spending the last minutes before surgery praying and meditating with his partner, Kez Green.

He woke two days later in the surgical ICU with his children at his bedside. Thomas paid tribute to Dr Koen and his team at the Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, noting that the surgeon successfully navigated two inches of scar tissue in his chest cavity during the operation.

“Some of the things Dr Koen did during the surgery were amazing. There were two inches of scar tissue in my chest cavity and he managed to get through that. It was expertly handled. The team was just fantastic.”

Call for more organ donors

Dr Koen expressed concern that patients across South Africa are dying while waiting for heart transplants because of a critical shortage of organ donors. He and Thomas urged South Africans to register as organ donors so more patients can receive transplants and return to normal lives.

“A stranger’s family, in their darkest moment, chose to save my life. That generosity deserves to be honoured by living well.”

Why this matters to Johannesburg readers

While Thomas’s transplant took place in Cape Town, his public appeal is for all South Africans to consider organ donation. Residents in Johannesburg and across Gauteng are included in the national shortage Dr Koen described, and the plea aims to increase donor registrations so more people on waiting lists can receive life-saving transplants.

Notes

• Source: Citizen article, 15 May 2026 https://www.citizen.co.za/news/ex-rugby-player-organ-donation-plea-to-south-africans/