With the cost of a transplant often exceeding $500,000, many transplant patients are unable to shoulder the financial burden of such a procedure. The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) is a national charity dedicated to organizing and guiding communities in raising funds for transplant-needy patients. In Cary, volunteers are raising funds for transplant patients like local teen Marie Neal.

Born on February 16, 1993, Marie was diagnosed with
alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency, and doctors at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina performed a
life-saving liver transplant on May 1, 2010. An estimated $115,000 is being raised by Cary volunteers.