“If you get a chance to save another person’s life, you just do it ... I knew what I would be giving up, but that was second to this chance to give someone else a chance to live. It didn’t matter that I don’t know who they are.”
For the last year, Brice Trudo has been training for the Open. But when a local family learned three of their children had leukemia, the 23-year-old stepped in line to become a bone marrow donor.
“The Open is very important to me. I’ve worked really hard the last year to compete in it, but when I got a chance to do this, I didn’t hesitate,” Trudo says.
When his HLA tissue type didn’t match that of the three children, he offered to donate bone marrow to anyone in need.
“(When) I found out I didn’t match, I just thought that was it and I might not ever be able to help anyone,” he says. “But then I got a call from (a group who specializes in bone marrow donation), and they said I could help.”
He matched a young girl. Without hesitation, he accepted.
“If you get a chance to save another person’s life, you just do it,” Trudo says. “It really wasn’t even a choice for me. I knew what I would be giving up, but that was second to this chance to give someone else a chance to live. It didn’t matter that I don’t know who they are.”
Last Wednesday, before the announcement of 13.2, he hopped on a flight to the East Coast. The bone marrow extraction was scheduled for the next morning, so he had just enough time to squeeze in the week’s workout at a local box.
John Issa and Mike Savitch, of CrossFit Praxis, kept their doors open late so Trudo could get the workout in.
After the warm-up, with the knowledge this might be the last bar he would pick up for 14 to 20 days, Trudo grabbed the bar, cleaned the 115 lb. to his chest and pounded out 251 reps.
“I popped in during the (workout) to help him and encourage him as he battled it out,” Savitch says. “After, we were sitting around talking and I asked him what he was in town for. He said surgery, and I was concerned. I asked, ‘What kind?’ and he said he was donating bone marrow.
“I know more than most people what all that means because until a month or so ago, my girlfriend was in line to receive a transplant. I remember just being stunned that this guy had just put him through that (Open Workout), knowing what he was going to have to endure the next day at the hospital. I mean, who does that? I guess people like Brice Trudo.”
The next morning, doctors inserted long needles into either side of his pelvis, and began to drill through the bone to reach the marrow inside.
After the procedure, doctors told him he would be mostly immobile for at least a week, and must refrain from lifting anything over 20 lb. for at least two weeks.
Although that will most likely make continuing on in the Open particularly challenging, Trudo remains optimistic about what may come out of the hopper.
“You know, if it’s (13.3) a bodyweight (workout), maybe I could jump in and do a pull-up or push-up and at least get one rep,” he says.
