Ultra-marathon runner who’s biggest struggle was in the operating room

Last year, ultra-marathon runner and Melbourne dad Robert Young faced an entirely different race against time — until a generous anonymous family chose to save the life of a stranger.

When Melbourne dad Robert Young lines up for his ultra-marathon this weekend, he will think of the family whose gift – given at the hardest time of their lives – made it possible.

It has been about a year since this anonymous family chose to save a stranger, allowing Robert to undergo a kidney transplant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

As he prepared for his anniversary run – with his daughter Samantha by his side – Robert said the transplant was “bitter sweet”.

What do you say to the family who had the power to save your life, because theirs had just changed irreversibly?

There’s no simple answer, no string of words that can fit neatly into one article and do justice to the depth of feelings transplant recipients grapple with.

But he does know how to describe the emotion that has hit him again and again this past year: gratitude.

“When you get a transplant, you’re so grateful for so many things,” he said.

“You spend a lot of time thinking about the donor … and of course the donor’s family because my gain is their tragedy.

“It’s a very bittersweet thing.

“You never lose that sense of gratitude.

“Every time I do something that’s quite physical, I do a few push ups or I go for a run, the brain immediately remembers why I’m able to do this.”

Robert and his daughter Samantha will run this weekend. Picture: Wayne Taylor

He remembered the moment everything changed, remembered sitting on his bed at 1am and bursting into tears.

He was in kidney failure, hooked up to a dialysis machine every single night, and his doctor had just called with news he had thought was years away.

“He asked me how I’m doing and I’m thinking well this is a bit of weird time,” he said.

“After a bit of chit chat, he says ‘we’ve got a kidney here for you if you want it’.

“I’m not an emotional person, but I sat there on the bed crying.

“You just know that your life is going to change.”

When asked how his family reacted to the phone call, Robert confessed that it was an Uber driver who drove him to the biggest appointment of his life.

He said he had not wanted his wife – who was overseas at the time – to spend hours by the phone worried and waiting for an update, so he held off until he was safely out of theatre to share the news.

“She was very happy because it’s been going on for so many years,” he said.

“Everyone was just over the moon.”

None of it would have been possible without Royal Melbourne Hospital’s staff, who he said were simply outstanding from the months of care prior to his operation to the team that managed his recovery.

Robert recovering after his kidney transplant. Picture: Supplied

“It’s the empathy and genuine care that they displayed,” he said.

“It wasn’t just them doing their job or being professionals, they were just wonderful people.

“I’m just blown away at how good the healthcare is in Australia.”

In the space of a year, he has gone from a slow shuffle around the ward in the days after his surgery to doing what he loves again and running his first ultra-marathon since he became unwell.

“By the fourth day I was going on three or four walks a day just around the corridors,” he said.

“You just get better all the time. About three months after I did my first little jog, just two minutes on the treadmill.

“Six months after the transplant I did a half marathon and was feeling pretty good.”

He said it was this that prompted him to find a marathon for the year milestone.

“Samantha, my daughter, she’ll be doing the 10km which is fantastic,” he said.

“It’s a very personal thing.

“This is more for my own frame of mind, rather than any sort of glory.

“It’s within my own head, I no longer have an excuse (not to run).

“It’s really just a confirmation that okay, if I can do a marathon then I’m good, I’m right, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do whatever I want now.”