Katherine Heigl: In memory of her late brother Jason

Actress Katherine Heigl (42) suffered a severe blow of fate as a child: her brother Jason died in 1986 at the age of 15 after a car accident. The actress will remember him on the 35th anniversary of his death. Heigl writes emotional lines about a photo that shows Jason on a happy day in swimming trunks on the beach. She says in her post that Jason was involved in a car accident on September 23, 1986 and spent a week in intensive care on life support. “35 years ago today he was withdrawn from life support measures. One week before his 16th birthday,” explains Heigl.

The actress “doesn’t talk about him often”, not even about the date of death or the weeks, months and years that followed. However, she wants to share an email that her mother Nancy wrote that morning. The message said that on the day of Jason’s death, several helicopters with surgeons flew to his hospital, “who operated on him in the early evening and removed his organs as a donation.”

“I appeal to all of us to become organ donors”

Katherine Heigl takes her mother’s email as an opportunity to draw attention to the importance of organ donation. “My parents made the decision they knew their son would have wanted for himself,” she explains. “They donated his eyes. His heart. His lungs. They donated what they could (…).” They would not have wanted “someone to suffer what they are suffering now”. The decision was not easy for her mother, “but it was the right thing to do”.

“Today, on the anniversary of Jason’s death, I appeal to all of us not to do the easy thing, but to do the right thing and become an organ donor. Death is inevitable. Tragedies happen. But none of us is alone. At least Jason has me taught “, Heigl finishes her post.

Katherine Heigl is the youngest in her family. In addition to her late brother Jason, she also has siblings John and Margaret.