Behan bein' Behan: Don't bet against her

By Mark Behan
Correspondent

March 26, 2008 03:02 pm

—

She was a Nike-wearing tomboy with a dream.

As classmates in school ran around the playground, Dottie Lessard-O'Connor had to sit back and watch. As an infant, Dottie had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

While the disease damaged Dottie's lungs, it could not steal her spirit.

"I always wanted to run; that was my dream," Lessard-O'Connor, 41, said.

And she did. Nearly 13 years ago and about six months after undergoing a double-lung transplant, Dottie's dream came true when she ran for the first time in her life. That was in May of 1995 and she hasn't stopped since.

Last fall Dottie ran the Nike Half Marathon (13.1 miles) in San Francisco. She is a competitive fitness model who also competes in obstacle course events (scaling walls, running, jumping over barriers, etc.) across the country. But Dottie shines brightest on the track as a sprinter and jumper. She is a multi-time medalist, including gold, at the U.S. Transplant Games, an Olympic-style competition.

"I'm catching up on all the years I missed and feeling strong," said Lessard-O'Connor of Haverhill, who lives with her husband, John O'Connor, an ultra-marathon runner, and son, Liam. "I hope I can run until I am 100."

Don't bet against her. She has a history of overcoming long odds.

In 1992, when she went on the lung transplant list, she was not the picture of health weighing only 85 pounds.

During the two years and seven months she waited for new lungs, she began lifting weights and focusing on nutrition to strengthen her body.

"Exercise is a big reason why I am here today," she said.

And that is why "Dottie's Dream," the nonprofit she founded, ranks high on her list of priorities: It gives athletic equipment and or swim/gym memberships to kids with cystic fibrosis, and children who are waiting for, or have had, an organ transplant.

"It's kind of my legacy. We want to give kids dreams," she said.

Next month Kelly LeCours of Bradford will run the 112th Boston Marathon to raise money for Dottie's Dream. And in June, Dottie's husband will compete in The Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile trail run in California to raise money.

In 2002, Lessard-O'Connor carried the Olympic torch through the streets of Boston as part of the torch relay leading up to the Olympic Games. But Dottie, who had won three gold medals at the Transplant Games, could barely complete the two-tenths of a mile run. The medications she was taking for her lungs ravaged her kidneys and she needed a kidney transplant.

After a year and a half of dialysis, she underwent a successful kidney transplant in 2002, and was soon back competing. Then she received national recognition when she was honored by Runner's World Magazine as one of its Heroes of Running in 2005.

Today she is a certified personal trainer who competes, coaches, writes, and is a motivational speaker.

As a kid, Lessard-O'Connor always wore Nikes, "Even when I was in the hospital I wore them instead of slippers," she said. "When I was 13 or 14, I always said I'd be sponsored by Nike someday — even though I was not able to run."

Today she is both a runner and a Nike-sponsored athlete. Dreams do come true.

This summer she will return to compete in the U.S. Transplant Games. But her focus will be on inspiring children.

"My thing now is to talk to kids about exercise and the importance of it," she said. "Exercise empowers you physically and mentally, and is a big reason why I am here today." For information visit, www.dottiesdream.com.