UNC Hospitals honors former UNC mascot, donor
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- UNC Hospitals dedicated their transplant clinic to a local hero over the weekend, as a part of organ donor awareness month.
It's now the Jason Kendall Ray Transplant Clinic.
Ray was a student and mascot for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In March of 2007, Jason was in New Jersey for the NCAA Tournament with the men's basketball team when he was walking alongside a busy roadway and was hit by an SUV.
Ray died three days after the accident from his injuries.
He was an organ donor, and his organs went on to save the lives of four people who still keep in touch with the Ray family to this day.
One of the recipients, a man who received Ray's kidney and pancreas, even joined Ray's parents at the clinic's dedication ceremony Saturday.
"Well it's a dream come true, and I'm just so happy that so many people came I didn't realize Jason had that many friends you take it's been 9 years and I realize today and I've said this many time this is God and everything is in his hands," Ray's mother Charlotte Ray said.
Ray's story prompted more than 46,000 Americans to sign up as organ donors.
