By Erin Williams

I ran in the Pacific Shoreline Marathon in Huntington Beach, California last February. I had been training for months, contending with the sweat, sore muscles, and fatigue; and I was ready. I stayed with my brother Todd the evening before the race, and as I was setting out my clothes and shoes for the next day, he surprised me.  “Guess what?” he said.  “I’m running the marathon with you.”  He had run marathons before, but on this particular evening my chest tightened and I burst into tears.

For Todd, running this marathon went well beyond covering 26.2 miles on foot. This one marked the end of a decade-long battle with liver failure. Now, after years of struggle, Todd would be by my side as I ran.

Running has always been part of Todd’s life.  He began in a church league when he was 11 years old, moving up to the one-mile and two-mile races in high school. His success landed him at University of California, Irvine, where he competed in Division I cross country and track events.  

But Todd contracted mononucleosis during his sophomore year at UCI, and his blood tests suggested that there was something else wrong. Doctors tested Todd for a variety of illnesses; a liver biopsy eventually led to the diagnosis of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). Though PSC is a serious condition, Todd had no symptoms. His family was concerned, but there seemed to be no immediate crisis.

Following college, Todd ran for an hour every day. In the spring of 1996, he ran the Los Angeles Marathon in 2 hours: 45 minutes: 13 seconds. During the next five years he completed law school, got married, and passed the California bar exam.

But by 1999, fatigue and jaundice had set in; the disease was progressing. Todd lost weight and suffered frequent nosebleeds and broken blood vessels. He now ran only 25 or 30 minutes at a time. In July 2000, doctors told our family that, unless he underwent a liver transplant, Todd had 18 to 24 months to live. By January 2001 the news was worse: he had only three to six months, they said.

Now unable to run, Todd no longer had the physical and emotional outlet he had grown accustomed to; but the fact was, running was no longer a priority. Todd’s first child was due in May. Though Todd had been on a transplant waiting list for four and a half years, doctors told us they expected he would die before a liver became available.  

Desperate, we searched transplant centers around the U.S., and found that the Shands Clinic in Gainesville, Florida might be able to help. Todd and his wife Jenifer talked to the obstetrician about inducing labor, and their son Trevor was born on May 2, 2001. Less than a week later, our entire family flew to Florida to begin waiting for a call from the hospital.

The call came at 4 a.m. on May 22: A donor had been found. That afternoon Todd went into surgery, and six hours later he had a new liver. Rehab began almost immediately—at first with just a few steps in the hospital room. A guy who had run 26.2 miles in under three hours could now barely walk 10 feet down the hallway. But he increased his walking time during the following weeks, and was given the okay to start running in October. 

At first, he ran just a couple of laps around the field at the neighborhood park. Todd said that those periods of seven or eight minutes were the hardest and most rewarding running he had ever done. He worked his way back into a routine, running 10 minutes three or four times a week, then increasing time and distance.

Todd’s first post-transplant race was at the 2002 U.S. Transplant Games in Orlando, Florida. With our family cheering in the stands, Todd placed second in his division in the 1500 meters. I looked through my own tears across the infield of the track to see my father on his knees crying. Todd’s time didn’t come close to matching his old pace, but it didn’t matter.

Todd is now alive and well because of the miracle of organ transplantation. Many states have a “Donate Life” registry where you can sign up to become an organ donor (see http://www.organdonor.gov ). If you are not yet a registered organ donor, please consider becoming one. You may already have indicated on your driver’s license your willingness to donate, but please take a minute to sign up online as well. In the unlikely event that you are involved in a tragic accident, having this decision made in advance—and letting your family know of your wishes—can make a life-or-death difference for another person. In fact, one donor can supply organs to as many as 11 recipients! Think of the families that could have their potentially tragic circumstances forever changed by just one donor. The key is to make the choice in advance—to make the commitment now.

Todd has now competed in the 2004 and 2006 Transplant Games. He has run in numerous road races, but he didn’t revisit the marathon until last February. When he told me of his plans the evening before the race, my mind raced through everything that had happened to Todd in the last decade: the decline of his health that led to his brush with death; learning how to walk again, and then run; building a law practice; building a marriage and a family with Jenifer (They are now the parents of three beautiful little boys). As I thought back to the low point, when doctors said he probably could not survive, I could hardly believe this day had come.

So we ran the Pacific Shoreline Marathon together on February 5, 2006. Todd finished the race in 4:28:45. To say that I was honored and overwhelmed to be by his side is a massive understatement.

Born in Berkeley, California, Erin Williams works in the Advisory and Thought Leader Services division of Genentech, Inc. Currently living in Pleasant Hill, California with her husband and two cats, she is a triathlete, and is training to compete in June 2007 in the Ironman Coeur d’Alene.

Addendum: Erin Williams completed the Coeur d’Alene Ironman on June 24, 2007. Swimming 2.4 miles in windy white-cap conditions, then riding a bicycle 112 miles, and then running a 26.2 mile marathon, she finished the 140.6 mile course in 13 hours, 20 minutes, five seconds. She says she plans to do it again.