Anthony "AJ" Myers and Joshua Catten, both 7, look and behave like normal children, but their lives have been anything but ordinary.

Both little battlers are in training for the Australian Transplant Games.

They are alive, happy and as well as can be expected because of the medical wonder of organ transplants. Both will need another transplant, although no one can say when.

When that time does come everyone who knows and loves them will be hoping for a miracle to pull them through. Their lives will depend on compatible organs being available.

So far this year, only seven West Australians have donated their organs.

AJ is a little boy with a wicked sense of humour -- he will show off the scars across his stomach and tell people that "a Great White Shark did it". He had a liver transplant at age three.

His mother, Jane Myers, said he woke up one day in July 2004 with yellow eyes and skin. He was in liver failure and was virtually flown straight to Westmead children's Hospital in Sydney where he went to the top of the list for a transplant.

With the rare O negative blood type, AJ was fortunate that a liver became available and he underwent 8 hours of life-saving surgery.

"It was the longest wait," Jane said.

"He was in an induced coma for a week because of the pain and after a week he woke up and that was the best day of my life and he said "mummy". There was no sound, it was just his mouth, but he said it."

Four months later, AJ made it home to Perth just in time for Christmas.

"It was wonderful. I was so happy when he came back normal -- to the AJ that we knew before he got sick."

AJ and his brother Matthew, 4, are looking forward to competing at the Transplant Games and have been brushing up on their chess, track and field, long jump, athletics, swimming and ten-pin bowling.

Despite the nine medications he takes morning and night and the weekly trip to PMH, AJ's life is fairly normal -- although not many children can produce a jar of 45 staples which held their chest together after such a harrowing operation.

Recently he has had a few setbacks with his health, such as a bad reaction to a new medication and confirmation that he will need another transplant at some stage.

Jane cannot speak more highly of donors and urges everyone to register as a donor: "They are the most wonderful, selfless people to give a stranger the second chance at life. There is no better gift."

Of the donor's family that Jane feels indebted to she said: "I feel for the family and I would like to thank them and I have sent cards but we haven't heard from the other side.

"It would be nice to say thank you in person and if they saw AJ it would be wonderful to see what they had done."

While AJ's need for a transplant arrived suddenly, Joshua, who was born in Melbourne and now lives in Stirling, struggled from before his birth in 2001 when it was revealed that his kidneys were not developing.

He was born with 1 per cent kidney function and in his first week parents Jennifer and Neil were told to "take him home to die".

He made it through that first week and has been a fighter ever since.

Since birth he has been unable to eat like everyone else and is still fed through a tube at night, although Jennifer packs him a school lunch every day.

From the start Joshua needed a kidney transplant, but he needed to grow to a size that would fit an adult kidney.

Joshua's four grandparents volunteered to give him the life saving kidney and Jennifer's father Ross Leddin, from Perth, was selected as a match.

Two months after his second birthday in May 2003 he required peritineal dialysis, which was administered each night, along with the feeding tube and by October 2003, he was ready for the transplant.

He suffered a heart attack while undergoing minor surgery four days before the operation so the transplant was cancelled, despite Ross having caught the train to Melbourne from Perth.

In March 2004, Ross's 62-year-old kidney was transplanted into Joshua who was just three years old.

Life changed dramatically for the better for little Joshua, who needs to stay fit to keep up with his three-year-old twin siblings Noah and Georgia. He has been running up and down his front lawn while dad Neil times him in preparation for the 50m event at the Transplant Games.

He will also compete in the long jump, swimming and ten-pin bowling.

He was bitterly disappointed last year when a septic hip stopped him from going to Bangkok to compete in the World Transplant Games.

"He participated in the Geelong games so he is really excited," Jennifer said.

She said it is critical to children like Joshua that people donate their organs: "There are a lot of children that just need donations."

It is likely that Joshua will need a new kidney every 15 years. He shares a special bond with his Pop and the family moved to Perth from Melbourne last year so the family could be closer.

The Australian Transplant Games are held bi-annually to celebrate the proof that organ donation works.