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A heartwarming celebration unfolded in Hoffman Estates as a local school teacher and her students embraced a newfound hope and a fresh start.
Katie Pappas, a resident of the suburb and dedicated educator, embarked on a promising new chapter, one she once feared she might never experience.
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Six months ago, ABC7 Chicago introduced viewers to Pappas, who faced the unsettling news of her second kidney failure. Nearly a decade had passed since her first transplant surgery, and she was back facing a daunting health challenge.
“They told me that considering all my body has endured, having already had one transplant, I couldn’t afford to wait another seven years. I needed a living donor,” Pappas shared.
This week, ABC7 had the pleasure of meeting “Katie 3.0.”
After enduring months of demanding dialysis treatments, the beloved teacher from District U-46 saw her community unite in a concerted effort to find her a donor. Their hard work paid off when the long-anticipated call finally came.
“[A] person who is a stranger to me and was deemed a wonderful candidate, just not for me, agreed to give their kidney to anyone so I would get one in return,” Pappas said.
The anonymous donor agreed to be part of a swap program to save her life and others. Last Thursday, on a red-eye flight from California, Pappas’ living donor kidney arrived, and so did her third chance at life.
On Wednesday, she celebrated her first week in her new life, surrounded by family, friends and current and former students
“I was crying when I first found that out, because I was just so happy that she gets a third chance on life,” former student Janice Poe said.
READ MORE | Beloved Hoffman Estates teacher in desperate need of 2nd kidney transplant: ‘I want to be here’
“Even when she had her hardest days, she always had a smile on her face,” Timber Trails Elementary School student Liana Kolovos said.
The Timber Trails Elementary School teacher also being celebrated for yet another contribution to her district: naming U-46’s newest school in Elgin.
Katie, with the help of her students, submitted the name Legacy Middle School just weeks before her transplant surgery.
“It’s an invitation for every kid that walks in the building to challenge themselves,” Pappas said. “What is your legacy going to be? What are you going to leave behind?”
Appropriate for the teacher who, already, through her fight to live has created a legacy herself, one she says she owes to the anonymous generosity of strangers.
“To everyone involved, thank you isn’t enough,” Pappas said. “And I plan on living the rest of my life like my donors watching, like all of them are watching. And I’m not going to let them down.”
