On the breakfast menu of Alexandre Allain this Sunday, “fried eggs and pasta”.
But before filling up on calories, he will swallow, as every morning for 4 years, his “anti-rejection” drugs rich in corticosteroids and immunosuppressants.
Transplanted with both lungs “on Monday July 17, 2017”, this superhero is at the start of the Paris marathon.
He is still under the influence of cystic fibrosis.
But his breath is not at all a handicap in his eyes.
"My concern is my tendonitis in the knee, I had to stop for two weeks," grimaces the 26-year-old athlete, who still has 1,000 preparation terminals in the stumps.
"My strong point is the mind"
To observe closely his light strides on his Sarthe lands, in the small village of Chantenay-Villedieu where his fame has dethroned the annual rillette festival, we are not too worried for him. It is not an inflammation, however perverse, which will slow down its momentum. “With regard to my experience, my strong point is the mind”, he positive, “even if it will still sting”. His father Jean-Luc, boss of an ambulance taxi company, will be his loudest supporter on the route. “With our own lungs, it's already a tough marathon. So there… ”, praises this fifty-year-old who prefers sport to television. He is prowled in the extraordinary challenges of his boy who "has punch". "With him, nothing impresses me anymore," he smiles, falsely jaded.
To make the general public aware of "muco", his son has already completed a tour of Europe with two friends at the wheel of a Renault 6 and sailed across the Atlantic with a crew.
Projects (past the marathon), this business school graduate who is about to "set up companies" has tons of them under his belt, for the time being secrets.
"You will come back when he is minister!"
», Invites, hilariously, the pater with the very British cap.
His surgeon will run alongside him!
In his 42.195 km long Sunday wanderings, Alex will be accompanied by his sports coach and “friends”.
“They said:
Okay, if Alex does it, we have no excuse!
"In the band also, a life saver who" saw it from the inside ", his surgeon at the Thorax Institute of the Nantes University Hospital, Antoine Mugniot. There is "no on-call" this weekend. “Alexander's energy and commitment drove me to follow him. This is the first time that we have, in our country, a transplant patient who tries the marathon, ”applauds the 51-year-old doctor. This type of test is also unprecedented for his calves. At the time of entering "in the hard" during the famous "30 km wall", we do not know which of the two will take on the role of the hare. What is certain is that Alex has the blessing of the "doc" to sweat for "4:30 to 5 hours". “He has a heart and lungs that work well, there is no reason to forbid him from a marathon,” reassures the knife pro. "I am no longer exhausted, I have regenerated myself", relishes the person concerned.
Read alsoLife expectancy, research ... the fight against cystic fibrosis is progressing
What a long way!
Since he started running 9 months ago, starting with "a first 13 minute workout", he has never breathed so well.
"I went to 98% lung capacity, or 10% more," he calculates.
Before his transplant, he was at less than 20%.
"It was as if a pillow was thrown over my face, I was in agony."
His "muco", an incurable genetic disease affecting the respiratory tract and the digestive tract and affecting 7,000 French people, was diagnosed at the age of three.
“A doctor told my parents:
If your son is in his teens, that's fine.
"
"He never complains" admires his dad
His condition deteriorated over the seasons. At 20 "rods", he goes through physiotherapy sessions to relieve the bronchial tubes, coughs 24 hours a day "even while sleeping", weighs only about forty kilos ... In this daily hell, the only solution to prolong hope of life (which amounts to 47 years today against 7 years in 1965), it is to replace the lungs. He's on a transplant waiting list. “After a month, I was called, I was lucky. His father drove him to the hospital at full speed. “I told jokes on the road. If it was the last two hours of my life, I had to laugh a little, ”laughs Alex. The operation lasts 9 hours. He wakes up two hours after leaving the OR. To keep all his "conscience",he only presses on the morphine pump when the pain is excruciating, that he is "at the end of the line".
The student of the time is stronger than the convalescence schedules.
“After two weeks, I was up!
But at the time, he recalls, "to take a single step is a marathon."
The first year is clouded by serious complications.
In the rib cage, the “cohabitation” with the new tenants proves to be difficult and the patient is invaded by “a feeling of rage”… silent.
"He never complains," admires the father, Jean-Luc.
His model: Grégory Lemarchal
By a happy coincidence, this race Sunday is also the world day for organ donation and transplant, the go-getter will devour the kilometers thanks to an anonymous young donor. She offered him "a second chance", "a second wind". In short, "a new beginning". “She has a life through my adventures. It's the engine and I'm the locomotive. Without her, I would not have seen 2018 ”, he imagines before praising the altruism of“ parents who have lost their daughter ”. “With their gift of life, they have brought me so much joy,” he thanks. This ambassador "conveys messages of hope", but "without watering down the disease". He remembers, among other suffering, that the "looks of others" on his growth deficit hurt him a lot. “At 18, I looked like a 14-year-old kid.When I went out with my friends, the girls would ask: This is
your little brother?
"
Between two supplies on the bitumen of the capital, he will find resources while thinking of Grégory Lemarchal. Not having been able to benefit in time from a transplant, the singer died in 2007 as a result of the "cyst". Like millions of French people, Alex discovered it in 2004 while watching the “Star Academy”. He was then 9 years old. “This is the first person I saw with cystic fibrosis,” he recalls. He makes him his model, the one who makes you want to "do lots of stuff" despite the verdicts of some white coats. Kid, don't speak - better not! »- but flourishes in a football club. “In the field, I spat a lot, I did my physiotherapy session at the same time. The disappearance of the icon is a "blow of the sledgehammer". “I realized that I too could die young. "
Alexandre Allain, transplanted from both lungs who participates in the Paris marathon on Sunday, here at the Elysee Palace with Brigitte Macron and the parents and sister of Grégory Lemarchal.
DR
A year ago, he met his sister and his parents at the Élysée Palace, at the invitation of Brigitte Macron.
“She was listening,” he appreciates.
It is "the First Lady" who prefaced her book "A breath of hope" (Hugo Doc editions) published last month: "Even when there was only a sigh of air in her lungs, forced with the advance of cystic fibrosis, his gaze did not let go of the course he had set for himself: to overcome the disease, to go as far as possible ",
Alex's doping agent, his "example", is his mother, who died of cancer when he was 13 years old.
“When she left, I was angry with her, I felt like she had abandoned us.
He owes much of his resilience to her.
“My mother instilled in me fighting spirit.
The last words she wrote to me were:
Life is going to be good
... "
