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Stories of Triumph, World Transplant Games 2019 episode 11 – Day 6 Bittersweet Ends and Looking to 2021 in Houston, Texas

The end comes, always, whether we like it or not. In most measurements of human time, we have beginnings which necessitate ends. Without an end there is no beginning so the last day of the World Transplant Games 2019 in NewcastleGateshead produced bittersweet emotions.

For people who have attended multiple World Transplant Games the emotional bridge on the last day is a familiar and an unwelcome but necessary path to take. Most participants are travel-weary and ready to go home, yet very sad to depart from their friends. It’s a rite of passage to pass through the last day knowing that you won’t see some of your best friends for two years. But before crossing the bridge, the athletes deny the end, then celebrate. One more human day with your friends begins. By the time you leave your accommodation in the morning you are enveloped once again by the Games experience.

For me, the final day began around 11am when I walked 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the centre of Newcastle near Earl Grey’s Monument to the Gateshead International Stadium. It seemed like a perfect August day in Northern Europe with sun, wind, and clouds taking turns for sky supremacy. On earth, it mattered little to me as the mixture produced clean air with a topography-rich walk that abuts both sides of the Tyne River. When I arrived to the stadium, the Games were in full swing. Celebrating life through transplantation sport had taken on a routine quality. Wake up, put on your team’s jersey, get to the sporting venue, cheer, get coffee, and repeat.

Behind the stage where the athletes prepared the atmosphere was festive. The athletes, officials, and physical therapists worked with purpose as they felt the finish line and when the women were walked out in groups to begin the 4*400 relays, the men stood up and applauded. Our group was assembled into a column with six rows and four columns. The six rows were for the number of teams and the four columns were for each member of the relay team. I took the second spot and looking to my left I could see that the majority of the teams had a better chance than ours but I was so thrilled to be there because at least today I had the chance to step on the track.

And when the race officials marched us out to the track my back felt a slap of applause from the supporters and other athletes who were celebrating life through sport one more time at the 2019 World Transplant Games. Satisfaction. I waved generally at whoever may be calling my name. It didn’t matter to whom my energy was directed because any recipient would be happy to receive it.

The crack of the gun turned off the sounds of the crowd. All I could hear was my own breath. I closed my eyes to smile and take a deep breath while I tracked our first runner around the track … 100, 200, 300 … and then the baton was in my hand. Just pass two guys and I passed one. I didn’t feel horrible or horribly fast but when I reached the apex of the final curve the wind I had been hearing about all day hit. I pushed a little bit harder but I hardly remember the last 125 meters. All I remember is seeing my teammate patiently and anxiously waiting for me. I slapped the baton in his hand. He took off. I stopped. My Games were over but the celebrations were just beginning as the relay athletes begin assembling near the finish line. Jean-Claude, the 85-year old transplant recipient from France, had just started his lap and the crowd stood. The cheers sent a wave throughout everyone’s body and we yelled in unison for the oldest athlete at the Games, his last Games. I quickly found him after he crossed the finish line and offered a félicitations. 

My walk back to the hotel was languid and lovely and I stopped to take a picture of NewcastleGateshead bridges, a place that started to feel like home.

I got dressed and found my teammates at the bus stop. For the first time we weren’t wearing our team colors. Versions of our “other lives” shone through our clothing choices. We were beginning our walk back across the bridge again to “normal life.” The final ceremonies proceeded festively and effectively and Houston, Texas was presented the baton to host the next 2021 World Transplant Games. Like others, I was spent. My only goal was to find as many people as possible to talk to and take pictures with. I had my picture taken with a female competitor from Hungary, my friends from Australia, a mate from Scotland, talked to man from Iran, enjoyed my conversation with my new American friend, traded the kiss greeting with mis amigos from Colombia, and smiled as I saw my American teammates mingle.

When we began to leave, we walked out into the world to continue spreading the importance or organ donation worldwide.

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Stories of Triumph, World Transplant Games 2019 episode 10 – Day 5 Athletics and Agony

Fatigue sets in on Day 5 of the 2019 World Transplant Games. The participants, supporters, volunteers, sports management staff take deep breaths and push through. Today was a day of athletics and agony for me personally but it was a magical day for the World Transplant Games 2019 in NewcastleGateshead in the United Kingdom. Athletes from approximately 50 countries participated in the track and field events and while the obvious action was on the field at Gateshead International Stadium, much of the action for the athletes takes place behind the scenes.

“Behind the scenes” in this stadium are multi-use courts behind and underneath the stadium seats. Opening the door to this space is like walking onto a movie set with multiple people working to pull off an event with more than 1,000 people. The first thing you see walking in are rows of massage tables where volunteer physical therapists, also called physiotherapists (physios), in yellow shirts seemingly work around the clock with permanent cheery attitudes on athletes’ muscles. To the right of the row of massage tables scores of blue-shirt wearing officials line up competitors for each event. Finally, behind a large partition athletes warm up on a basketball court doing various leg kicks, stretches, and sprints. It is on this basketball court where the majority of the athletes’ competition time takes place. While athletes size each other up, they also hug each other, happy that after two more years they are both alive and well and that transplants from their donors are still working. The time transplant athletes spend with each other represent just a few minutes in their actual time on earth, but the memories generated in these moments will be replayed and celebrated for the rest of their lives.

In my case, I was happy to see a person I call my brother from another great-great-great-great-great grandmother Stephen Jarvis who ended up Male Transplant Athlete for 2019. Stephen has an Olympian’s talent for athletics which is matched by his love for competition and competitors. And when Stephen departs to check in for one of his many events, athletes from Germany, Colombia, and Thailand jog by proudly showing off their greatest prize: Life.

My only goal for today is to run the 4*100 meter relay race. A relay race consists of four runners each of whom run only 100 meters (hence 4*100) to go once around the track. They use a baton to signal their connection with Newcastle’s bridges as the backdrop. Each bridge was built to connect humans with each other. Modern phones and apps are simply bridges in a new era and transplantation is the ultimate human bridge. I was looking forward to stretching out my arms twice while running the second leg of the relay with a double-lung, heart, and liver transplant recipient. Win or lose, the goal was simply to get on the track and run with my teammates and against others. But destiny had other plans. Agony today was delivered in absence. One of the four people who were supposed to run simply didn’t show up. These moments that are so pregnant in possibility are simply abandoned with one word to the race officials “scratch.” The person who decided not to show up to run with his teammates with unfortunately be remembered in a negative light. Of all the mishaps, I only became angry once and that’s when my teammate didn’t show up. Not having a teammate not show up feels like even more of a betrayal at the World Transplant Games that are full of community and support but unplanned events and having no control over circumstances are part of every recipient’s life. It’s dark.

The light, however, are other humans who shine. Immediately our female teammates began searching the stadium and sending out multiple messages to find a replacement. While ultimately unsuccessful, the deep sympathy shown by our teammates is a memory I will equally remember.

The near-end of the Games brings mental, physical, and spiritual fatigue and yet every volunteer like every donor family, doctor, nurse, healthcare professional and friend simply takes a deep breath and continues walking through the agony to find the athlete inside them. 

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