Sadly, I
have to report that Kinga Toth from Hungary, and one of our most enthusiastic
Council members, died in January of this year.
She had recently been reselected to the
Council and was a charming and lively
representative of the Eastern block countries.
Many of you will remember her from the World
Games in Hungary, when her organising
abilities helped to make them such a success.
She was a delightful personality, and will be
very much missed. Editor
KINGA TOTH was part of this struggle from the beginning. She would be 39 years old this year.
Her life remains an example of hard struggle, will and ambition. She completed her education in a secondary school specialised for languages, thereafter she worked as an English and Russian business correspondent. As a young girl she was a member of the Hungarian team of gymnasts.
She was just a bit older than 20 years when her promising career was broken by a serious disease. She received a kidney transplantation at the age of 23. Her life was shadowed by various serious illnesses. But she did not give up. She was working, like the healthy ones in banks, ministries, manager-centres. She was studying. She was in love. She wanted to be happy.
And her happiness came through her voluntary work, which was done for the community, for her friends with whom she shared a common fate. Since 1987 - with a short break - she was the representative of Hungary and the whole East-European region in the WTGF.
She fought for the equal rights and equal opportunities of the poor, underdeveloped Eastern and Central European countries and was determined that their participants should be able to take part and be given equal chances. One of her goals was to achieve, that sporting opportunities be determined by talent and not by the place of birth and/or financial consideration. She wanted to ensure transplant athletes could reach and arrive at a venue for games no matter how far it was.
She firmly believed that her words in the WTGF and in the Hungarian Transplant Sport Organisation carried enough weight, that she could help her fellows. She also believed that what she said, would fall onto fertile soil and her deeds and spirit would survive in the world organisation and in her country as well. This, and her own will, kept her alive.
Other people would have given up after so much suffering and would have withdrawn into their little corners, licking their own wounds. She defied with her faith and proved to us and to herself her strength.
We miss her very much ! ! Her belief, knowledge and enthusiasm left a great gap after she passed away. But the example that she left behind, will remain with us and we will follow it.
Her Spirit will live with us. Only her body doesn't exist any more.
Professor Ferenc Perner
Dear Gyorgy,
I would be very pleased if you could convey my sadness at the tragic news which I heard last night on my return from the Canary Islands. I refer of course to the death of Kinga Toth who, over the years, became a friend, and someone who had my personal respect, as well as the respect of the World Transplant Games' Federation. You are the last person for me to have to tell, and the first person to know, how hard she worked on behalf of your organisation, and how fierce her loyalties were to Hungary and to transplantation, and the concept of sports in transplantation.
I suppose the thing which l admired most about her was her valour in the face of adversity, and her courage and willingness to stand up to any opposition, even if she was in a minority. When she believed something, she believed it strongly and fervently, without reservation. In some ways she exemplifies to me the things that we are fighting for and hoping to achieve. A 'better deal' for people who have had a transplant and the chance for the thousands of people who need a transplant, to have one.
I am deeply saddened by the news, and I would be grateful if you could pass on our respect and admiration for Kinga Toth and our sympathy to you, the Hungarian Transplant Sports Club, for the loss which all of us will suffer.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Slapak
PS. Of course I write this both on my own behalf, but also on the behalf of the Council and the member nations of the World Transplant Games' Federation.