At 67, a liver transplant recipient from Eure-et-Loire takes part in the race of hearts for organ donation.

For more than thirty-six years, she has been making them run for the rest of their lives! The Course du Cœur is a unique 800 km relay race between Paris and Bourg Saint Maurice – Les Arcs (Savoie). Fifteen teams will set off on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. More than 200 runners, employees of large companies, institutions or healthcare professionals, will work together over four days to support organ and tissue donation.

Twelve transplant recipients, eight men and four women of all ages, who have undergone kidney, liver or bone marrow transplants from all over France, make up the Trans-forme team. Antoine Guache, 67 years old, lives in Louisana (Eyr et Loir). Eighteen years ago, this sports enthusiast donated part of his liver to save his daughter Marie. Cancer of the hemangio-endothelioma-epithelioid type is very rare. “It was not possible to carry out chemotherapy. Tumors covered his liver. There were too many of them for it to work. So we chose a transplant, but the waiting time was fifteen months. The doctors gave him three months to live,” says the father.

Without hesitation, the former technician and grain salesman offered his daughter his liver. “I didn’t think. It was the only solution, and I was lucky that it was compatible. I was 47, she was 23, she had no right to leave without taking advantage of it,” recalls the athlete. A man accustomed to stress and having already finished four marathons admits that he suffered during his recovery. “It’s very difficult. I see myself three days after the operation, my two brothers were standing at my bedside, and I thought this was the end. Nothing came back into place. Liver regeneration is like explosions inside the body,” says the pensioner.

Fifteen years after the donation, he also needs a liver transplant.

Despite the forty-centimeter scar on his stomach, Antoine Guache will quickly return to the saddle. Six weeks after the operation, he returned to his job at Axéréal. Four and a half months later he ran the Medoc Marathon. But fifteen years later, fate persists. It is his daughter who escorts her father’s cart into the operating room. In 2017, the athlete was diagnosed with a pancreatic tumor. His liver is completely metastasized. He also needs a transplant. His life was saved by a deceased donor. “It reinforced my belief that everyone should talk about organ donation,” says Louisantais.

As if to prove that he is stronger than the disease, Antoine will take part in his 44th marathon six months after leaving hospital. He has since turned 50 and is preparing to take part in the Race of Heart. His goal is to tell his experience. “It’s important to bear witness, and connecting with other transplant recipients will be a great experience,” says the 67-year-old runner. Like him, 11 more transplant recipients, ambassadors of organ donation, will meet with the public: in 2023, 5,634 organ transplants were performed in France, and 21,866 patients were registered on the national waiting list as of January 1, 2024. to the absence of a transplant.