Memories must wait

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This article was published 05/04/2020 (2034 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is one of Brent Dueck’s most cherished memories.

He was a member of the Canadian team that edged Argentina in the volleyball gold-medal game at the 2007 World Transplant Games. While Dueck was able to celebrate a win with his fellow organ transplant recipients, he learned an important lesson, too.

The thrill of victory was eclipsed by something more meaningful.

“It was amazing, everyone was rushing the court, it was such a cool moment and then I looked at the other side of the net at Argentina and they were cheering — essentially as happy and jubilant as we were,” said Dueck Tuesday. “I remember being struck by that and thinking to myself, ‘OK, they get it. They get what these Games are about.’

“It was a humbling moment and I took a moment and I approached the team captain and gave him a big hug. He didn’t really speak English and I can’t really speak Spanish but we embraced beside the court and traded jerseys.”

Dueck, a 42-year-old father of three, received a life-altering kidney transplant in 2002. He had endured than 30 operations to improve his kidney function from the age of two and spent seven months on dialysis.

The kidney, a gift from his father, has allowed him to live a full life as a phys-ed teacher and volleyball coach at Rosenort School while also whetting his appetite for athletic competition at two worlds and nine Canadian Transplant Games.

“From then on, I kinda changed my perspective on the Games,” said Dueck. “It’s more about what a transplant can do. A transplant can completely change your life. Some of us were on our death beds. Some of us, like myself, were strapped to a dialysis machine.”

Dueck also serves on the organizing committee for the upcoming Canadian Games, which were slated to be held in Winnipeg Aug. 10-15. The COVID-19 pandemic has scuttled those plans, but Winnipeg is now set to host the next national event in 2022.

“It is quite disappointing,” said Dueck, who was also planning to compete in high jump, shot put, golf, tennis and badminton at the multi-sport event expected to draw about 150 competitors from across the country. “I know with the coronavirus hitting we are part of the most vulnerable sector.

“They always say the elderly and the immunocompromised and people with previous health conditions (are most at risk). Well, all of us who have had a transplant are immunocomprimised. We are taking anti-rejection drugs, which are also immunosuppressent, so our immune systems are not good.”

Another Winnipegger, retired school principal Mark Miles, also had a busy competitive schedule planned for the Games as well as serving on the organizing committee.

Miles, 64, received a new heart on Sept. 25, 2015, scarcely a month after being placed on the transplant list.

An athlete throughout his life, he was walking two days after the surgery, working out in a gym within five weeks and playing hockey with his buddies at the five-month mark.

“That’s one of the biggest things — people have lived a healthy lifestyle pre transplant but it’s difficult to get back in the routine,” said Miles. “My journey as a transplant receipient is very short. People I’ve talked to have waited like seven, eight years for a heart transplant.

“Our goal is of course to promote organ and tissue donation. We also want to promote healthy living after transplant. We want people to get back out there.”

Miles, who serves as the Manitoba director for the Canadian Transplant Association, was planning to enter multiple events in swimming and cycling at the Games but now has few workout options. He preparing to wait for ’22.

“We can’t train anywhere right now,” he said. “My routine would be to go to the pool to swim and then I work out at the Y all the time. In this weather I can get back on my bike again. I don’t have trouble motivating myself to exercise, it’s my routine anyway.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14