As sports fans celebrated the kickoff of soccer’s FIFA World Cup last month, Milton resident Lara Grell was headed to a different kind of athletic competition.
Grell, 39, joined several thousand organ recipients, donors and donor family members in Colorado for the Transplant Games of America, a biennial event celebrating the lives made possible through organ donation. Over four days, participants competed in more than 20 events, such as basketball, badminton, swimming, track and field, trivia, and Texas Hold’em.
For Grell, a double-lung transplant recipient, simply participating in the games as a member of Team New England was a victory.
Born with cystic fibrosis, Grell battled severe lung disease, frequent hospitalizations and the chronic exhaustion of struggling to breathe. By her late twenties, the condition forced her to step away from her job as a mental health counselor.
“It was hard to do basically anything,” Grell said.
Then, at age 30, she received a double-lung transplant from an anonymous donor — a surgery that changed the course of her life.
“It feels very much like living life in reverse,” Grell said.
Nearly a decade later, Grell is embracing experiences that once seemed impossible: hiking, traveling without extensive medical equipment and breathing more freely than ever before.
This summer marked her second Transplant Games. Grell didn’t compete when she first attended in 2018. She was still focused on recovery and found a community of people there who understood what she was going through.
She returned this year as a member of Team New England’s basketball squad. The group didn’t add to the regional team’s 30-medal haul, but the result wasn’t her focus. Running up and down the court feeling so strong was “surreal,” Grell said, and a reminder that the limits she once lived with no longer applied.
The games also produced a collective milestone. Grell was among 966 people who set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of organ recipients and living donors in one place.
Grell hopes her story will encourage more people to register as donors — and help others experience the kind of second chances celebrated at the Transplant Games.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Catching Air”
This article appears in July 1 • 2026.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
