This is an issue that is particularly important to Katherine - when her brother Jason was tragically killed in a car accident in 1986 the Heigl family made the difficult decision to donate his organs to help save others.

Not only did this painful chapter give Katherine a greater perspective and appreciation for life, it also motivated her to use her celebrity to promote the importance of organ donation.

"It's hard for people to be thinking about organ donation for the first time in the midst of crisis," she said in an interview for Spotlight Health in May 2002. "But organ donation is the most honorable way to preserve the memory of someone you love. I learned through difficult experience that this is the right and humanitarian thing to do. The need is always out there. Make sure the people around you know your feelings on organ donation, so your loved ones can fulfill those wishes without any doubt."

Both Katherine and her mother Nancy devote time to promote awareness of organ and tissue donation. At events such as Share The Beat, they helped raised money by speaking with passion on a subject close to their hearts. Nancy told the Share The Beat audience "that there was never a doubt in her family's mind that Jason would have wanted his organs donated for transplant". She called this gesture "Jason's last gift for a world he had the greatest affection for."