Oakland A's Catcher Working to Raise Awareness for Donate Life

WHAT: Donors on the Diamond
WHEN: 4 to 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 23
WHERE: Fluor Field, Downtown Greenville
WHY: To raise awareness and donations for Donate Life South Carolina
TICKETS: $75 for adults, $25 for children; may be purchased online.
WHAT TO EXPECT: Music from 80s cover band Retro Vertigo; a silent auction of autographed sports memorabilia to include jerseys signed by Derek Jeter and Chipper Jones; and a chance to see some other sports celebrities.

Organ donor? It was the box that Landon Powell checked at the DMV, when he renewed his driver's license. It didn't mean much to him at that time, but now his whole world has changed.

The 29-year-old professional athlete hasn't received an organ donation, but he will.

A baseball standout at the University of South Carolina, Powell was a first-round draft pick for the Oakland Athletics in 2004. But suddenly, his world changed.

Powell, who is now in his third season as a catcher with the A's, had always considered himself healthy and was used to strenuous workouts two to three times a day.

But in January 2009, he began to struggle. He said workouts got harder, his skin became jaundiced — and ultimately one day while exercising, he collapsed and his body began convulsing. Powell spent the next five nights at Greenville Memorial Hospital, not really knowing what was wrong.

"At first they thought it was pancreatic cancer," Powell said. "I was scared, one of the things I knew was that Patrick Swayze had just been diagnosed and none of the reports had been good."

Powell said finally they put a name to his illness — auto immune hepatitis. He said the best way to describe the illness is that each day his auto-immune system was trying to kill his liver.

Powell is treating the genetic disposition with medicine and while he only has received tissue transplants due to injuries, he has yet to seek an organ donation.

But it's his thoughts of what he will face in the future that have driven him to make a difference.

Powell, along with his wife Allyson, who is a Greenville native and Eastside High School graduate, will host the second-annual "Donors on the Diamond" on Sunday at Fluor Field.

While the desire is to raise money, Powell said the real goal is to raise awareness.

"When my wife and looked into organ donation we 'Googled' organ donation and Greenville, S.C.," Powell said. "I was surprised by what we saw — 112,000 people were awaiting a transplant in the country, 1,000 of those people in South Carolina. It suddenly became so much bigger than baseball."

Powell said while in California with A's, he works to promote the work of Donate Life South Carolina by holding events with his team at the stadium to inform and to sign up donors.

"God gave me the ability to play baseball, but I want to be able to use that gift to do good things."

Next, Powell said he hopes to fly with one of the pilots who carries that "gift of life" to the next person.

"To see that glimpse of hope, to know that someone has a chance to live because someone else made that decision to donate their organs is a miracle," Powell said. "One person can save eight peoples lives."

Saving One Life

Jody Chesney never checked the box on the renewal form of her driver's license that said "organ donor."

She said she had a horrible misconception of what would happen to her if she had the little red heart showed up on the bottom of her license and she were injured in an accident.

"I was misinformed," she said. "Badly, misinformed."

Today, Chesney is well-informed and ready to spread the good word on how organ donation changed her family forever.

Because if it had not been for an organ donor, Chesney said she couldn't enjoy the little things in life — like taking a quick glance in the rearview mirror and seeing her 5-year-old son Tillman singing along to the radio, hearing his laughter or feeling his arms around her neck.

At 10-months-old Tillman had to have a heart transplant.

Chesney said she remembers the options as they were presented to her by doctors.

"I could hold him until he passed away, they could do reconstruction or he could have a transplant," Chesney said.

After a failed reconstructive surgery, a transplant became the only option. In the hospital for 13 months, Chesney never really knew if she would ever take her son home.

"He is my first child, my only child," Chesney said. "I'm blessed with a wonderful child because someone else made that decision. My heart aches for that family who gave life, because I can't imagine a day without my child."

Chesney said she learned more about organ donation and transplants through her son's transplant team. While Chesney said they still have to be very careful, Tillman is a typical little boy. He goes to preschool, plays with friends, and screams, and laughs, and lives each day to the fullest.

And on Sunday, he'll be at Donors on the Diamond ready to encourage others to to donate life.

"The gift of life is the greatest thing you can ever give someone," Chesney said. "Say 'yes.'"