The Complicated Beauty That Is Organ Donation

In July 2022, Kahtoola Associate Cat Mellum received a life-saving liver transplant. Her diagnosis of Autoimmune Hepatitis came as a surprise in 2021, after she was hospitalized with complications stemming from chronic kidney disease. It was a stressful and harrowing experience for Cat, during which she gained a heightened appreciation for organ donation and raising donation awareness. She also decided she would try to make a difference for future recipients.

In December 2024, Cat traveled to Aspen, Colorado from her home in Flagstaff, Arizona to participate in Summit for Life with Kahtoola Owner and Founder, Danny Giovale, his partner Myriam Bishop, and fellow Kahtoola Associate Austin Corbett. There, participants ski, hike, or run the 3,267 vertical feet up Aspen Mountain to raise funds for The Chris Klug Foundation and organ donation awareness.

Cat credits no small part of receiving a transplant with the work done by organizations like the Chris Klug Foundation whose mission is “to educate individuals to register as organ, eye, and tissue donors and inspire those in the transplant community.”

According to Donate Life America, there are more than 100,000 people in the US waiting for life-saving organ transplants at any given time, and another is added to the waiting list every eight minutes. And while many millions of Americans are organ donors, the need is still great. Each year in the U.S. 5,600 people die while on the transplant waiting list, that’s 15 every day.

Cat doesn’t think of herself as a hardcore athlete or risk-taker. And for many, the physical and mental stress of a major organ transplant would be crushing. But in choosing to maximize her positive potential and tackle a challenge outside her comfort zone, she’s found inspiration and unlocked a new set of resilience-building tools.

Recently, Cat sat down with us to chat about her experience at Summit for Life, the power of supportive communities and people and the growth that can come from doing hard things.

When and how did you decide to take on Summit for Life?

I’ve been working for Kahtoola for about eight years, but I’ve known Danny through my sister for closer to 20. I told him about needing a transplant when I was put on the list in February 2022, and right away, he said, “Oh my gosh, you have to do Summit for Life!” I’m not a long-distance hiker and I’ve never done anything like this before, but a great thing about working for Kahtoola is that I’m surrounded by people who do, which makes me think maybe I can do those things too. Maybe it’s even a good idea. Or, maybe it’s a bad idea but I’m going to do it anyway, because that’s what we do here, push our limits. So I decided I would.

I got my transplant in June of that year, but with S4L happening in December, it would have been too soon after my surgery, so I decided to aim for the 2023 event. Danny, his partner Myriam, Austin, and I all made the trek to Aspen in December with high hopes. Unfortunately, the race was postponed to the following weekend due to a snowstorm, and we couldn’t stay or return. So we didn’t do the climb that year. But, we all got together and headed back again in 2024, and this time we did do it!

Has completing an event like this outside your comfort zone changed your attitude toward doing physically hard things?

One of the things I didn’t know would come out of this is that I would want to start pushing myself harder. During a workout or other activity, I would always limit myself. But finishing that race changed that entirely. I don’t do it anymore. I tell myself, Oh girl, you can go a lot harder than you think. And I do. I also try to share that attitude with others. Not long after Summit for Life, my Mom had her third surgery after a bout with breast cancer, and I was able to remind her that we all do hard things all the time and that she’ll recover and be healthy and be able to do the things she likes to do again. My experience had given me that extra boost of energy to encourage her on her wellness journey.

There’s also nothing like a big challenge to grow your toolbox. One of those tools is mental strength. Being outside and doing hard things—even not-so-hard things—can elevate your mental health. Being told you need an organ transplant and going through the process is a mentally taxing experience, so props to the outdoor community for giving us these challenges to help keep us strong.

What do you think these kinds of events that raise funds and awareness mean to the transplant community?

There’s a real sense of connection and community at this event. For some people, their organ donation story is a good one. For others, it might not be. Maybe they lost someone. Maybe they were a living donor and gave a kidney. But in all, we’re not a big community, which is great. But, for example, living in a small mountain town, it’s unusual for me to come across someone else who has received an organ, so it’s nice to be able to connect at an event like Summit for Life.

Summit for Life is a celebration of organ donors and those lucky enough to receive them. As a transplant recipient, what does it mean to you that others are willing to donate?

It means everything. It’s also almost a polarizing feeling. You know that someone like myself is having a great day when they receive an organ because someone or someone’s family has decided to donate. But at the same time, that person’s family may be having a really difficult day. This is the complicated beauty that is organ donation. It can be hard for someone to decide to keep a family member alive long enough to extract their organs to give to someone. It sounds crass when I say it like that, but it is a beautiful dance of pain and joy that happens.

How did the climb go?!

Danny climbed the entire mountain with me and I think it took us about three and a half hours to get to the top. It was a snail’s pace, but we had fun along the way! We drank hot chocolate and stopped for snacks, and Danny was really supportive. Honestly, it’s probably a good thing we weren’t able to do the race in 2023. If we had, we probably wouldn’t have finished. It would have been too cold to be out there that long.

It seems Danny played an important part in your Summit for Life adventure. What did it mean to have his encouragement and support behind you?

Getting a transplant is complicated and difficult, so the emotional part of the whole experience is pretty intense for me. You have to make a lot of quick decisions and it helps to have a good support team. I was away from work for eight weeks after my transplant, and the support from Kahtoola, and Danny, just on a personal level, was immense. When I said I wanted to do this climb, his response was, “Awesome, I want to be your support person,” to climb with you, to train with you. It’s been a really great experience, especially for someone who doesn’t do all the outdoorsy stuff Danny does regularly. He patiently encouraged me to do this race—not for Kahtoola or him, but for myself. And having Myriam join us, and Austin waiting at the finish was huge. I can’t even express it.

Is there a special moment or two from the race that stood out to you?

There were a lot, but I think my favorite moment came at the start line. It was a really fun atmosphere with great energy, and it was inspiring because there were people with family members who had donated, people who had donated themselves, and even a few others who had received organs. It made me feel like that was where I needed to be at that moment: getting ready to climb a mountain at 5:30 p.m., in the dark. The four of us got a team photo together—our team name was “Cat, Ooh La La!”

Was there any aspect of it you found particularly challenging?

Getting up the mountain was hard, but I felt fine physically. Where I struggled most was mentally. I mentioned to Danny a couple of times that there are ways to “eddie” out of the race—aid stations where they’re happy to put you on the back of a snowmobile and take you down the mountain so you can ride the gondola up. So going into the race, I had it in my mind that if I needed to “eddie” out, I could. But I wouldn’t. Well, out on the mountain, the mental struggle was real for me, and a little over halfway up, I decided I was going to drop out at the next aid station. I mentioned this to Danny and told him how unexpected I found it. I thought my mental game was stronger than that. My mind was telling me, This is dumb, you should go back, you should turn around. Not long after I had made up my mind, Myriam came back down to see how we were doing. I told her I was struggling, and she said, “Well what hurts?” I told her nothing hurt. She said, “Well, what’s the matter?” I told her it was my head, that it was telling me I couldn’t do it. Her reply was, “Then don’t listen to it.” And in that moment I found those to be such profound words. My mind was spinning out of control and I just needed to tell it to knock it off. That was a pivotal moment on the mountain for me and it helped me to keep going.

Do you have any other takeaways from your Summit for Life experience?

I think that when you have major surgery, there are just some things you can’t do anymore. But there are also a lot of things you can do, and this event pushed me to realize I’m not broken, and that I have a new lease on life. For me, the whole experience also parallels deciding whether or not I was going to get a new liver. Like, did I want to go through the whole process? How hard would it be? Could I do it? Could I be a good steward of a new organ someone had generously donated to me? There are a lot of questions in a process like that, in both of those processes. I’m not sure I’ve processed it all yet, I’m still working on that.

It sounds like you’re hooked. Do you have any new adventures planned or fitness goals going forward?

I’ve been a big proponent of Orange Theory Fitness for a long time, but before Summit for Life, I thought I needed to be careful because I’m not super young and I didn’t want to hurt myself. But now I realize I can do hard things, and that includes getting as fit as I want. In the back of my head, I feel like there are other things I should be setting my sights on, but I don’t know what that looks like. Maybe it’s the Kahtoola Uphill!

What do you suggest for people who aren’t yet organ donors but are interested in becoming one?

You can register at Donate Life America or, if you’re renewing your driver’s license, you can indicate on there that you’d like to be an organ donor. February 14th is National Donor Day and April is National Donate Life Month, so these are great times to tell your friends and family about organ donation and remind others to do the same.