Troy University alumna Katie Hawkins Beall will share her experiences as the recipient of a liver transplant and discuss the importance of organ donation during presentations in the Claudia Crosby Theater on the Troy Campus at 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 19.

Her presentation, “My Transplant Story: The Importance of Becoming an Organ Donor,” is sponsored by TROY’s Panhellenic Council. The event is free and open to the public.

Beall, the daughter of Troy University Chancellor and First Lady Jack and Janice Hawkins, underwent a liver transplant in November 2017, roughly one month after entering the hospital with what she initially believed to be an intestinal infection.

Doctors informed her that she was in liver failure and that her heart and kidneys were also failing. After spending three weeks in the transplant wing of the University of Maryland Medical Center in critical condition, Beall’s heart and kidney function were restored and she was able to receive the liver transplant.

Beall said she was excited for the opportunity to share her experience and emphasize the importance of organ donation with her TROY family.

“One organ donor can save up to as many as eight lives. Becoming an organ donor is so important because every 10 minutes, someone is added to the national transplant list,” Beall said. “Each day, 20 people die waiting for an organ. I was blessed with my second chance when I received a liver from a 32-year-old male in Baltimore who had died of a heroin overdose. If not for him, my life would have ended nine months ago. Please do not wait to become an organ donor! You never know when you or your loved one may need the gift of life.”