For Bera Wierhake, a new chapter in her life began after the successful surgery on the third attempt. She draws a lot of life energy from her passion, sports. Today, she is one of the top athletes with a transplanted organ and brand ambassador of the event. She already has seven World Championship medals hanging in her closet. Her journey to becoming a top athlete is unusual, starting with ballet, followed by football—the complete opposite program. Eventually, she decided on athletics.
She now trains at VfB Stuttgart. Her specialties are middle and long-distance events. At the World Transplant Games in 2023 and 2017, she diligently collected medals, winning gold in distances ranging from 400 to 5000 meters.
Dresden is an important opportunity for her to raise awareness about organ donation—both donors and especially recipients, some of whom wait years for lifesavers, need this “encouragement” in the form of the World Transplant Games. Bera Wierhake is particularly looking forward to competing for the first time in her own country in Dresden in 2025. This makes her proud.
Her goal is less about the medals and more about something bigger: Through sports, she feels alive and hopes the games will lead to a greater willingness among potential organ donors. What is also lacking is funding for participants. Unlike Olympians or Paralympic athletes, Bera Wierhake has to pay almost all costs associated with competitions out of her own pocket.
