“I would have died”: Falone Pégé goes from coma survivor to 3 km walk champion at the European Transplant Games

Falone Pégé was living life to the full when she learned she had bone marrow cancer. After several years of fighting her way back, the woman from the Loire region was given a new lease on life. In a few weeks, she will fly to the World Transplant Games in Germany (17–24 August) with two goals: perform and raise awareness.

It is a harrowing, chilling story, yet a beautiful one too. The story of a young woman who, at 26, spent long months flirting with death. A fighter whose illness stole part of her youth. The kind of ordeal no one would ever choose, but one that commands admiration. On 18 March 2020, Falone Pégé’s life was turned upside down. She was studying in Angers, the city of King René, and just two months away from her 21st birthday when doctors at Angers University Hospital gave her devastating news. She had acute myeloid leukaemia. In other words, cancer of the bone marrow. “I cried straight away,” she recalls. “I had stomach pains and I bruised and bled easily. I was tired and more breathless when I exerted myself,” she explains. Just four days earlier, she had been out at a party.

Bone marrow tests, blood tests, X-rays… On morphine, the basketball player spent her days confined to bed. After induction and consolidation chemotherapy, she received cells from a Polish man on 20 August. “I was able to exchange letters with him. I don’t know his first name,” she says. The transplant was a success. At least, it seemed to be. Released from her ordeal in September, she made the most of being alive and went on a road trip, while continuing to attend regular check-ups. “I had a strict diet. I wasn’t allowed to eat seafood for 365 days. My dad told me to call the hospital to find out whether I could eat moules-frites exactly one year after I was discharged,” the survivor recalls.

At her own pace, the former student from Segré rediscovered her passion for sport, going out for regular runs. Encouraged by the hospital team, she decided to take part in the National Transplant Games in Narbonne in May 2022. She drove her camper van across the south of France and picked up two gold medals, in the 3 km walk and karting in the 18–25 age group. “We were there to raise awareness. The atmosphere was friendly. We had all been through difficult times. There were no taboos and no uncomfortable looks,” she recalls.

When she began considering taking part in the World Games, the anxiety returned. In mid-March, the stomach pains came back. After a night in hospital, the doctor told her she had relapsed. Her first reaction, instinctive and entirely in character, was striking: “Are you kidding? I’m supposed to be in Australia in a month, for the World Transplant Games.” Daydreams were over; the ordeal began again. “It was harder to accept.” Her muscles gave out, and so did her mind. “I was in a wheelchair. My blood pressure was dangerously low, at 7, and my heart rate was 145 beats per minute while I was lying down. They sent me to intensive care and put me into an induced coma. I had no choice. I don’t remember any of it. Without those five days, I would have died.”

Back among the living, with no muscle or energy left, she had to learn everything again. “I couldn’t even send a message. I couldn’t stand for more than five minutes.” This time, there was no transplant, but a new treatment. “I had one week of chemotherapy followed by three weeks of rest.” A nearly normal life allowed her to reconnect with her love of the basketball court and running. In July 2024, at the European Games in Lisbon, she claimed another title in the 3 km walk, along with a silver medal in individual badminton and a bronze in the 100 m freestyle. A few months later, on 13 December, she received her final injection.

In August, the Olympic torchbearer will fly to the World Transplant Games, which will be held in Dresden, Germany, from 17 to 24 August. It will be a chance to make up for 2023. Competing in the 3 km walk, badminton and 3×3 basketball, the disciplines she practises every day, she wants to deliver a clear message: “make sport more accessible and raise awareness of organ donation.” Simple actions that can save lives. Falone Pégé knows that better than most.

Now studying to become an orthotist-prosthetist in Angers, Falone Pégé embodies resilience. Believing in life despite setbacks, disappointments and misfortune. Whatever situation she found herself in, the 26-year-old clung to the smallest glimmer of hope. That glimmer has grown into a dazzling light.