Through a month-long series of events and promotions, Legacy of Hope (formerly the Alabama Organ Center) recognizes National Donate Life Month in April. The celebration, established by Donate Life America to raise awareness about organ donation, will showcase the various perspectives of families and individuals touched by donation and transplantation.

Stanley Wright is carefully crafting an emotional letter to a grief-stricken family. He yearns to express his boundless gratitude for their ultimate gift: the liver that gave Wright a new lease on life. “I want the family to know that their loved one lives on,” he says.

It took four long years for Kelly Berwager to build up enough confidence to share her story of kidney donation, but now she hopes her personal experiences will encourage others to consider giving the gift of life through her new book, “Bridge Donor: The Journey of a Living Organ Donor.”

Anthony Pilot and Jessica Meyer hope their intertwined pasts – and their passion for helping those in need – will help inspire others to show more kindness.

UAB Medicine patient Kevin Russell received a kidney transplant in 1991 at the age of 27. This life-giving operation helped him live almost two more decades, to the age of 45, leading his family to make a legacy gift to the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute in 2020.

Four years ago, 28-year-old Ana Kenney was told that she would either spend the rest of her life on dialysis or have to wait up to 10 years for a kidney transplant.

Cooper Pierce was 13 years old when doctors diagnosed him with pulmonary hypertension. After undergoing a heart and double-lung transplant at UAB Hospital, he is now a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and hopes his story can inspire others.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham and UAB Medicine have established the first uterus transplant program in the Southeast and the fourth such program in the United States.

Because of the need for social distancing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Legacy of Hope (LoH, formerly the Alabama Organ Center) has cancelled in-person events for National Donate Life Month, an observance established by Donate Life America to raise awareness about the need for organ donation. That’s the bad news. The good news is that, even in this time of crisis, organ donation continues due to the generosity of donors, their families, and the frontline staff who support the LoH mission.