"Transplantation didn't just save my life, it transformed it": Heart recipient celebrates donor by finishing a half-marathon

Right now there are about 1,500 Coloradans who are waiting for a life saving organ transplant. That's why the Donor Alliance holds its annual Donor Dash to raise awareness about signing up to be an organ, eye or tissue donor. For many recipients an organ donation doesn't just save their life, it transform it.

Andrea Ogg was born with left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy, a rare condition that means her heart didn't pump properly.

"Always as a child, I struggled physically, couldn't do any athletics, tried out for every sport imaginable and was just awful," Ogg said.

She didn't get a diagnosis until she was in her middle 30's. By the time she was in her 50's, she was on a defibrillator and then in end stage heart failure.

"I couldn't walk across my living room without stopping for a breath," Ogg explained.

She woke up after the transplant and for the first time in her life she felt good.

"I made a promise to this heart and to the family of my donor that I was going to take this heart everywhere, and I was going to do all the things and take exquisite care of it," Ogg told CBS News Colorado.

RELATED: Donor Dash brings organ donor/recipient community together

The transplant launched Ogg on a journey that started with first steps in the hospital, to dancing, to hiking, to training and finishing a half-marathon. Ogg cross the finish line of the World's Highest Down Hill half-marathon last month.

"It was surreal," Ogg says of crossing the finish line. "I ran across the finish line and I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it."

Ogg says her next goal is to work on strength and maybe even to run a little faster.

"I feel free. I was trapped in this body that wouldn't support the things I wanted to do, and now I'm free so I don't want to waste a moment."

LINK: Register for the Donor Dash

The 24th Annual Donor Dash is Sunday, July 16, 2023 at Washington Park. Registration begins at 7:00 a.m. and the Run/Walk kicks off at 8:00 a.m. CBS News Colorado's Michael Spencer will be emcee at the event.