Just days after Adeline Rollins was born, her mother knew something was wrong.
Although people tried to reassure her otherwise, Margaret Rollins’ instincts proved right when, at just a few weeks old, Adeline was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a life-threatening liver disease that affects just one in 18,000 newborns worldwide.
She underwent her first surgery at 6 weeks old, and by age 2 received a transplant with Margeret donating a portion of her own liver.
Margaret remembers watching her daughter become jaundiced, tolerating only a Pedialyte a day with a belly so swollen, it rivaled the size of a watermelon.
Now, eight years later, she’s preparing to watch 10-year-old Adeline take on a very different challenge – performing her own rendition of “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan during the 2026 Transplant Games of America – a biannual, weeklong Olympic-style competition for organ donors and recipients.
“The idea is to meet people that are in the same post-transplant world as you, bring awareness to organ donation and mainly to be there to honor your donor in some way,” Margaret Rollins, surrounded by friends and fellow competitors, told The Dispatch on Friday. “… A lot of the people come and sign up for things and push themselves outside of their norm in honor of their donor (to show) ‘I’m actually living life.’”
Beginning June 18 in Denver, Colorado, thousands of transplant recipients, donors and families from across each state will compete for gold medals in more than 20 events ranging from swimming and golf to ballroom dancing and Texas Hold’em poker. Recipients compete in Division 1, living donors, tissue and bone marrow recipients compete in Division 2, and donor and recipient family members can compete in select categories.
Angie Basson, who will return alongside the Rollins family for her second year at the games, called the experience a “really special thing.”
“It’s just kind of a world into itself, but it’s a whole lot of fun,” Basson said. “It’s a lot of camaraderie and learning and growth and … it’s just a feeling of not being alone.”
For Basson, her journey into what she calls the “transplant world” began with what she believed was a particularly nasty sinus infection.
Diagnosed in 2003 with a fatty liver disease, Basson spent two decades in exam rooms as scarring on her liver worsened and fat deposits continued to grow, though nothing could be done to slow its progression.
In April 2022, she walked into her doctor’s office, expecting to leave with a note for routine antibiotics. Instead, a blood panel revealed she was in dire need of a blood transfusion because of her failing liver.
During the transfusion process, her body went into seizure, leaving her in intensive care for three days.
“That kind of started the whole journey of (realizing) ‘Hey, your liver is shot. … It’s done.’”
Basson was added to the organ transplant waitlist in April 2023 and received her transplant Aug. 31 that same year – a blessing, she said, compared to many who never make it off the list.
Discovering the games
Just nine months after surgery, Basson spotted a flyer for the Transplant Games lying around a clinic at UAB Hospital and signed up without a second thought.
After dominating in trivia that first year, she now plans to compete in a new challenge every day of the 2026 games.
“One day I’m throwing darts – I haven’t thrown a dart since I was in my 20s,” she said, laughing. “I don’t care. I’m doing something every day to honor the fact that I’ve got this new lease on life. … I’m going to have fun, and I’m going to honor my donor and … honor God and try to be as healthy as I can be for the rest of my life.”
“And meet a lot of new friends,” Margaret Rollins added, smiling.
In addition to meeting the Rollins family at the 2024 Games, Basson was introduced to Lacy Cooper, whose transplant journey began decades earlier.
Cooper was born with a condition in which the left side of her heart was severely underdeveloped and failed to properly pump blood through her body. Before age 2, she underwent three surgeries and lived with her native heart until age 30, when it began to fail.
“I was like … I’m still able to get up, I’m still able to walk around, I feel that my heart is failing, but I don’t look it yet,” she said. “… I waited five weeks in the hospital … (and) … towards the end, my fingers were turning blue.”
Then, after midnight on May 19, 2019, two nurses entered her hospital room – they had a match.
That night, Cooper and her husband packed up what had become more of a dorm than a hospital room – boxing up photos, decorations, seasonings and snacks, and the next morning, she was wheeled into surgery.
Months after her transplant, her husband, Robert Cooper, underwent a cornea transplant. Around the same time, the couple planned to restart an adoption process they had paused while Lacy recovered, anticipating the process to take years, as it had before.
But just three months later, their adopted daughter was born.
“When you’re in the mix of it, miracles … can in a sense hit you,” Robert Cooper said. “… It’s one thing to know about God, but then to live for him. … You look back and it’s like, ‘Wow. He has been here this whole time.’”
While the Coopers and Rollins family have yet to fully “buckle down” and practice for this year’s competition, Basson has spent months preparing through pickleball and water aerobics.
Meanwhile, Adeline is readying her voice through vocal lessons twice a week and has already planned her outfit for the Lyrics for Life singing competition: a sequined pink skirt, matching top, pink cowboy boots and a cowboy hat.
“She’s excited for the games,” Margaret Rollins said. “… It really is a sweet, good event. It’s remarkable.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
