That old chestnut about football being “more important than life or death” had never seemed more fatuous…
Even briefly discussing some mutual sporting connections with Calum Elliot just a month or so after this former Hearts footballer’s seven hour liver transplant seemed a trifle trite although we did confirm his cousin is Gordon Ross the former Scotland stand off and his uncle Ian Ross continues to pick up Masters squash titles around the globe before addressing the task in hand.
Calum had requested some assistance in thanking the people who diagnosed his condition of primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic disease affecting bile ducts that can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. There is no cure and only a transplant can suffice always provided a suitable donor can be found.
At the moment nothing is more important than getting that message out other than family and health to the man signed for Hearts from Salvesens Boys Club by then chief scout and star-maker John Murray as a 12-year-old and then by manager Craig Levein who put him on a senior contract and the road to 100 + first team appearances.
So many at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary are in his debt, he says, as are organ donors. All have a special place in his heart.
“It’s been quite a year. Football has not been massive, certainly not as important as family and health. But a nice distraction nonetheless” is how the 38-year-old sums up a situation which saw his health deteriorate last year having been diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, aged 12.
Calum adds:
“It’s been a difficult period culminating, eventually, in a transplant.
“I must have obviously been quite unwell to have had it (a transplant) so quickly.
“I’m just so thankful and I’ll keep listening to the doctors, dieticians, transplant co-ordinators etc.
“At the same time it must be really raw for the donor’s family who have lost someone and I can’t imagine what they are going through.”
There is no getting away, though, from the fact that football has given him an identity and a platform to highlight the benefits of organ donation.
Maybe, too, sport and the fitness it engenders has given him an added chance on the recovery scale?
“Did my athleticism help me? Maybe in terms of resilience and when I was in pain and trying to get out of bed and back on my feet I’d find something within myself.
“One of the targets before getting home from hospital was to climb a set of stairs. I should have done it in the company of a physio but as it was a weekend I did it by myself.
“It really is about taking things day-to-day though. I don’t want to get ahead of myself so I set mini targets.
“For example I want my bloods to be at a certain level at a certain time.
“Walking 8 or 9 kilometres with the dog is something I want to try to make a bit easier.”
“Sport is something I fall back on. I’m competitive. But I don’t want to get carried away.
“There’s going to be difficult moments within the next year. I have to be prepared.
“That said once you have had this kind of surgery you have to be as positive as you can be.
“There’s a football match I want to take my son to in May but it is not an environment where I want to put myself out, mentally more than anything.
“Friends and family, people giving up their time to visit me. everybody has been so amazing.
“I’ve love to be in a position to repay kindnesses by being the best version of myself.
“What I really want to do (in telling his story) is encourage people by becoming more aware of organ donation and how critical it is.
“It’s not something everyone wants to talk about but it is so important.”
There was so much to explore In Calum’s sporting career including a spell abroad with Zalgiris Vilnius in Lithuania as well as player manager of the intriguingly named Mousehole FC, a Cornish non league team. And his Scottish youth caps.
But that can wait. Priorities are the name of the game and in thanking doctors, nurses, the donor’s family even the ERI cleaners for keeping his spirits up as well as wife Lindsay and their three young children Calum has shown his are very much in the right place.
