Lawrence Eagle Tribune - October 12, 1998 By Kathie Neff Ragsdale Eagle-Tribune Writer

Twenty years ago, Vanessa A. Underwood of Plaistow, N.H., was a sick young woman suffering from the fluid retention, coughing and flu like achiness of life-threatening kidney disease.

Dorothy A. "Dottie" Lessard of Bradford was a pre-adolescent whose cystic fibrosis left her short of breath and envious of classmates who could run.

But in August, the two women took seven medals between them in the 1998 U.S. Transplant Games in Columbus, Ohio, and Ms. Lessard captured yet another honor - a diamond ring presented by her now fiancé, John Patrick O'Connor.

Both women say they have organ donors - and the memories of their late mothers - to thank.

Ms. Lessard, now 31, was 6 weeks old when she was diagnosed with the inherited disease cystic fibrosis, which causes chronic lung infections and digestive problems.

By the time she was in high school, she had to be hospitalized regularly for intravenous antibiotics. She was barely able to complete her college at Newbury College in Boston and was so ll by the time of graduation that working was out of the question.

A self-described tomboy since childhood, she nevertheless kept up an exercise routine, lifting weights in a special room outfitted by her father, David L4essard, when her condition prevented more strenuous activity.

When her health worsened, she was put on a waiting list to receive a double lung transplant, and waited two years and seven months before the 12-hour operation was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1994. The only thing she knows about her donor is that he was a mountain climber who died of a brain hemorrhage. Every year, on the date of her transplant, she climbs a mountain and leaves a yellow rose there in his memory. But another person was also instrumental in her return to a healthy life - her mother, Beverly Lessard, who died of cancer five months after the transplant. "She just wanted to see me get my lungs," says Ms. Lessard, a massage therapist in Haverhill. "I think that she died for me because she knew I wasn't going to be able to go forward and get better watching her suffer like that.... She could take care of me better if she was in heaven.”

Mrs. Underwood's late mother, Carolyn Shaheen Freije, had an even bigger role in

her daughter's health: She donated one of her kidneys to save her life.

Mrs. Underwood was diagnosed at 13 with glomerulonephritis, an inflammation of the filtering units of the kidneys, often resulting from infection.

Within 10 years, her kidneys were starting to fail and doctors suggested a trans plant. Her whole family volunteered to be tested as donors, and her mother and sister Grace were found to be the best matches. In 1979, the surgery was performed, with Mrs. Freije as the donor.

"Being a mother, she was not going to have both of her daughters in the hospital, explains Mrs. Underwood, now 43. Bloated from medication, with her weight up to 200 pounds, Mrs. Underwood spent time recovering, then delved into "an exercise and fitness program that has allowed me to maintain the quality of life I have now.”

She set aside her training in social work and paralegal studies -in favor of becoming an aerobics instructor and consultant who often speaks to support groups and medical conferences about fitness.

Against doctors' advice, she also had two children, Katherine, now 17, and Caroline, 12.

Then, in 1989, her kidney began to fail and her sister Grace F@v@e of Manchester, N.H., now president of the National Kidney Foundation of New Hampshire, stepped forward.

"Grace said, 'I have this one chance in my life to do something worthwhile. Don't take it away from me,"' Mrs. Undwerwood remembers.

A second transplant operation was performed, successfully, allowing Mrs. Underwood to continue her active life. Now, in addition to her fitness work, she is a victim advocate at the Plaistow Police Department, and serves on the board of directors for the National Kidney Foundation of New Hampshire, the National Transplant Games Committee, and the executive council for Transaction, a constituent board of the National Kidney Foundation.

But her life has been touched by further tragedy.

 

Two years ago, her mother died in her sleep at the age of 72. Mrs. Underwood, who had been active in the Olympic-style competitions sponsored by the National Transplant Games Conunittee, was so devastated she considered ending her participation.

"It was kind of like the joy went away," she says. "My heart wasn't into the games, but I decided to do it for my mother."

Held every two years at different sites in the country, the games are open to anyone who has received a donated organ and rep resent the largest gathering of transplant recipients in the world.

Contestants are limited to four events among the array of track and field, golf, ping pong, swimming, bicycling, racquetball and other sports at the games.

This year's games drew 1,500 athletes and S,000 spectators to Ohio State University, where the competition was held Aug. 4-8.

Among them were Mrs. Underwood, Ms. Lessard and Bruce Desmarais, 40, of Atkin son, N.H., an accountant and kidney trans plant recipient who competed in two golfing events but took no medals.

 

The two local women fared better.

Mrs. Underwood, who had won two silver medals in the 1994 games and a silver and a bronze in 1996, decided to dedicate her participation to her mother's memory.

I trained very hard," she says. "I wanted this year to be a tribute to her."

Her goals were to win a medal in all four of her events and to take a gold in shotput "because it was something I had never done in my life and something most women don't do."

 

With her husband, Thomas, and daughters watching, she met all her goals, taking a gold in shotput, a bronze in the 100-meter race and in the 50-yard breaststroke event and a silver in the 500 meter freestyle. In each event, she kept the image of her mother, "Sitheo," the Lebanese word for grandmother, in her mind.

"For me, this year was very special," she says.

The four-day gathering was also eventful for Ms. Lessard, whose first running attempts after her transplant were across the two miles to the cemetery where her mother is buried.

"That was the beginning of a lifetime of health, being able to run," she says. "I kept running."

In 1996, she captured a silver medal in the long jump, and this year won a gold medal in the same event. She. also took a silver in the 100-meter run and a bronze in the softball throw.

Among those watching was her boyfriend, of two years, John Patrick O'Connor, 26, an electrical engineer at Analog Devices in Andover.

At opening ceremonies, he surprised Ms. Lessard by dropping to his knees, bringing out an engagement ring and asking, “Will you spend the rest of your life with me?"

Ms. Lessard was so touched that after she said yes, she collected some of the dirt he was kneeling on as a keepsake.

As for his proposing just before the competition, "I think it helped me," she says, "because I was on cloud nine."

An August 1999 wedding is planned.