Katie Joyce, a proud recipient family member and Quality Assurance Coordinator at HonorBridge, has been a passionate advocate for donation for decades. Her commitment stems from witnessing her father live life to the fullest thanks to the generosity of not one, but two donors. Stories like Katie’s, from both donor and recipient families, are at the core of our mission. As HonorBridge celebrates 40 years of saving and healing lives, we are honored to share the journey of one of our own.
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“My dad, Terry Hall, was only 26 years old when he first went into kidney failure,” said Katie. “At the time he was overseas in the air force with a case of strep throat, but he never went and got it checked out. The strep infection attacked his kidneys, and he was medically discharged and sent home.”
Katie was still a child when her father received his first kidney transplant on Dec. 21, 1996. His donor was the late husband of Jan Frye Hill, a former HonorBridge board member and long-time volunteer.
“He was able to piece together the timeline from my story during a talk I gave, and realized he had received my husband’s kidney,” said Jan. “This was confirmed, and I was asked if I was willing to meet the recipient and his wife. This was so meaningful and helped me further in my grieving and healing process.”
The connection forged during that meeting not only helped Jan heal but also created a lasting bond between the two families, leading to decades of advocacy.
“Shortly after my parents met Jan, they began volunteering and brought me along,” recalled Katie. “My parents and I, accompanied by Beth Hinesley, a community relations coordinator, would go to my high school and talk to our health classes about organ donation. We would also help organize the Donate Life Walk and 5K in Winston-Salem, which started at Novant Forsyth and ended at Baptist, and that was always fun. My parents were also motorcyclists, so they would also organize a couple of rides at the Harley dealerships for organ donation. In 2010, our family won the Carolina Donor Services Volunteer of the Year Award. I was 17.”
If it were for his transplant in 1996, Katie says that neither of her younger sisters would be here.
“My parents were told they could not have any more kids after me, but two weeks after hearing that, my mom found out she was pregnant. There’s a six-and-a-half-year gap between me and my middle sister, and an 11-year gap between me and my youngest sister.”
In time, Katie’s father would need another kidney transplant—and thanks to Julie Landon, a registered nurse and HonorBridge employee, he would receive his second miracle on June 6, 2006.
“My mom was a registered nurse at Wake Forest Baptist hospital, and that’s how she met Julie,” said Katie. “Julie was in and out, doing cases, and they built a relationship from there. She approached my mom at work one day and said, ‘I want to give Terry a kidney!’ His kidney is still doing great almost 20 years later, which is amazing.”
After graduating from culinary school with a degree in baking and pastry arts, Katie worked as a baker for a while before taking an administrative job with orthopedic surgery at Wake Forest Baptist.
“My number one goal when I was applying and hired at Baptist was to somehow get into the transplant department, even if that was just scheduling transplant clinical follow-up appointments,” said Katie. “I wanted to feel like I was helping in the transplant world, because the transplant world has done so much for us.”
Although volunteering with HonorBridge had been a part of Katie’s life for years, she wrote herself as a potential employee due to what she saw as a lack of credentials.
“I did not realize that HonorBridge was more than clinical, if that makes sense,” said Katie. “I don’t have any nursing education, degree, or certification, so I didn’t think I’d ever be qualified to work there. One day I was on the website and saw a quality assurance coordinator position posted, and they were looking for someone who was detail-oriented, passionate about donation, and organized. That was me! I applied, and the rest is history.”
Now an HonorBridge employee, Katie gets to experience the other side of organ donation—meticulously reviewing charts to ensure everything is accurately documented.
“I enjoy it because, when you look at a chart, you’re essentially looking at a person,” Katie shared. “You’re seeing their story—what happened and what brought them here. I take every chart I review personally, in a way. It’s incredibly rewarding to see recipient follow-ups or learn that a kidney went to a 2-year-old.”
Despite years of battling health issues, Katie’s father continues to experience years of life that, without his donors, would have never been possible.
“He has had some health issues along the way, anti-rejection meds, skin cancer, and diabetes,” said Katie. “Due to diabetes, he has lost his left leg from the knee down due to neuropathy and has been the recipient of donated skin grafts. If it weren’t for donation, he wouldn’t have walked me down the aisle. He wouldn’t have walked my sister down the aisle. If it weren’t for donation, he wouldn’t have kept my child from the time she was six weeks old, when I had to go back to work, until Sept. 2021, when he got Covid. My sister is pregnant with twins now, and Julie’s still in our life today. Two kidney transplants gave my dad two more children, five grandchildren, and my parents almost 40 years of marriage. Donation has shaped who I am and has given us so much more than we could have ever imagined.”
Did you know? 75 lives can be saved and healed by one organ, eye, and tissue donor! Sign up today!
