Over 100 transplant recipients compete in Canadian Transplant Games kicking off in Sherbrooke

More than 100 people who have received organ transplants are gathering in Sherbrooke this week to compete in the Canadian Transplant Games, a celebration of second chances through donation. The 11th edition runs through the week, bringing together 160 participants from eight Canadian provinces.

Competitions include cycling (5 km and 20 km), track and field, tennis, road running (1 km and 5 km), pickleball, petanque, golf, and other sports. One of the week's highlights is the donor walk on Wednesday, which ends at Jacob-Nicol Park where a cenotaph honors organ donors.

For participants like Anne-Sophie Galarneau-Frenette, 34, who received a heart transplant a year ago for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, the Games offer crucial community. "It's rare at 34 to need a new heart," she said. She's competing in badminton, bowling, and swimming. Éric Chandonnet, a kidney transplant recipient in his first Games, echoed the value of meeting "people who have experienced, and who are still going through the same situation."

Martine Bouchard, executive director of Transplant Québec, stressed the importance of remembering 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." Sylvie Charbonneau, provincial director for Quebec at the Canadian Transplant Association, noted that her own son has received two kidney transplants. When he first competed in the Games in Argentina, she recalls, "he looked at my husband and me and said, 'Here, I'm not an exception.'"