They got a second chance thanks to organ donation. Heart, lung, liver, kidney transplants- it doesn’t matter. More than a hundred people who have received an organ donation will participate this week in the Canadian Transplant Games, which kick off Sunday in Sherbrooke.
This is the 11th edition of this competition, which this year will bring together 160 participants from eight Canadian provinces. The Games are held every two years in conjunction with the World Transplant Games, but the 2020 and 2022 editions were cancelled due to the pandemic.
There will be events throughout the week for a variety of sports: cycling (5 km and 20 km), track and field, tennis, road running (1 km and 5 km), pickleball, petanque, golf, and many others.
One of the highlights is the donor walk, which takes place on Wednesday. The walk will end at Jacob-Nicol Park, where there is a cenotaph in memory of organ donors.
“Despite the fact that we may think that people are not present, they are present in every breath, in every heart, in every kidney that lives through a person who is in the process of going through a transplant ordeal,” says Martine Bouchard, executive director of Transplant Québec.
“It’s to say, ‘we’re alive because there is a family that agreed in a difficult moment to say yes to organ donation.’ It’s a time to remember and thank the families who made this gesture,” says Sylvie Charbonneau, provincial director for Quebec at the Canadian Transplant Association.
Meet people who are going through the same challenges
Charbonneau is particularly touched by this cause, because her son has received two kidney transplants, one of which was donated by his own kidney. She remembers when her son first competed in the Games in Argentina. “The first night, we arrived in a room of 2000 people where dinner takes place. They were all transplant recipients. Then he looked at my husband and me and said, ‘Here, I’m not an exception,’” Charbonneau recalls.
She emphasizes in broad strokes the importance for transplant recipients to find a community. That’s the number one reason that led Anne-Sophie Galarneau-Frenette, who has had a heart transplant for a year, to register for the Canadian Transplant Games. “It’s to build a network of transplant recipients because it’s rare at 34 to need a new heart,” she says.
Galarneau-Frenette required a heart transplant because of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, a rare heart disease.
This is his first participation in the Games. She has enrolled in badminton, bowling and swimming. She is looking forward to meeting “people who have experienced the same difficulties.” After going through the transplant, there are all kinds of challenges, says Galarneau-Frenette, who is a nurse by training.
“You have to avoid large crowds. In terms of food, we avoid what is raw; we have to be careful with the cooking of food, avoid contact with people who are sick, things like that,” she describes.
Community spirit is also an important element for Éric Chandonnet, a kidney transplant recipient, who is also participating in his first Games. “It’s about going after the same people who have experienced, and who are still going through the same situation as the rest of us,” he says. The amount of medication, the follow-up that we still have to do despite having a new life… We’re still a little sick. We are not totally cured. We’re still under a huge watch, but still, it allows us to leave behind the worries we had before and focus on a new life. It’s just wonderful.”
His story took a turn when he met a father while volunteering for his children’s hockey team. This person he met, a father of 11 children today, was aware of his health problems, and he was ready to donate his kidney to her.
Chandonnet did not want to impact his life, “because it is not giving a kidney nothing”. He did dialysis for a few years, but his quality of life was deteriorating. “I was tired, I wasn’t beautiful in terms of skin either. I was like someone who was going to die,” he says.
He finally received his kidney transplant, generously donated by this father 15 years ago, which Chandonnet describes as “a miracle”. After his transplant, hour by hour, he regained his vitality and his skin became pink again like a healthy person.
Chandonnet plans to participate this week in the two bike races, 5 and 20 km. He knows this sport well, because since 2012, he has set up the Tour de rein Éric Chandonnet, a route for cyclists that takes place in Laval and whose objective is to raise funds ($50,000 in 2026) for the Kidney Foundation.
Raising awareness about organ donation
The Canadian Transplant Games also help promote healthy lifestyle habits after transplantation. “The objective that is always mentioned is for people to get back in shape, but underlying that is the rest, mental health support, networking, and all the visibility we want it to give so that we increase the consent rate for organ donation,” says Charbonneau.
The director of Tranplant Québec agrees: “It highlights the benefits of organ donation, that’s clear. It underlines all the courage and resilience of the people who are transplanted. It also pays tribute to donors and their families, in addition to raising awareness among the population to express their wishes in terms of organ donation. For us, it certainly demonstrates concretely that organ donation saves lives, but we can really see it. Each person transplanted is the reflection of an exceptional gesture of generosity,” concludes Bouchard.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
