Angèle Lamothe

Transcript

The doctor walked into the room barely able to contain his excitement and said words I'll never forget. You have the kidney of an Olympic champion. Hold that thought for a moment. I want to take you with me on a beautiful memory. I was 8 years old at the cottage with my dad. You can picture it, right? The waves crashing on the beach, the smell of fire burning, laughter echoing across the lake. We would sit around the campfire roasting marshmallows and mine always caught fire.

I was so impatient. He would smile, pull my hand back gently, and tell me, "You have to wait for it." At times, the road less traveled seems scary, but along those moments, people beside you make a big difference. I remember the exact moment mine changed. My dad sat me down and told me he needed a kidney. Dialysis was no longer working. It was life or death. And death was not an option. I would step up. I would do it. Because when someone has spent their life sacrificing for you, protecting you, and loving you, you don't stop to calculate the cost of loving them back.

You just do it. It became a family affair. My sisters wanted to help, too, hoping they'd be a match. But they couldn't donate. Then my mom stepped forward and said, "I'll do it." With fear in her voice, but without a second of hesitation, if she could take on the pain so I wouldn't have to, she would. That's the unconditional love of a mother. But then the news came crashing down. You can't be a donor. I watched my mom's heartbreak in real time as she faced every parent's worst nightmare.

The possibility of losing her husband and her daughter in the same surgery. Yet, somehow she held us all together. I remember when I stepped up, I would do it. But racing was my life. And as a triathlete, I had learned to push hard, endure, and keep going when my body wanted to stop. Would I ever be able to race again? Could I take care of my 8-month-old at home? Could I still be able to have the large family I had always dreamed of?

Suddenly, the road ahead was filled with fear. But when I looked at my dad, none of those fears were bigger than everything he had already given me. After the surgery, the surgeon walked into the room excited and said something I'll never forget. "Before we even finished suturing your kidney, it produced 2 L of urine. You have the kidney of an Olympic champion." Life pushes us down roads we'd never choose for ourselves, but when we travel with people who love us unconditionally, we start choosing those roads.

[screaming] So, I want I want to challenge you tonight. If you're here with someone you love, look at them. Tell them how much they mean to you. Tell them how much you care. Go on. I'll wait. If they're not here tonight, I want you to call them on your way home. I want you to call them and tell them how much they mean to you. Because the passengers in our life don't just help us survive the journeys, they help us survive us, too.

And when you learn to walk down those roads with people you love, suddenly those small moments feel grand. You don't need to donate your kidney. It can be those small moments too. Like the moment at the the fireplace, roasting the perfect marshmallow. Thank you. Woo!

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.