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 Myrtle Beach, volunteers are raising funds for transplant patients like local child Kayla Killman. 
      Born on March 9, 2000, Kayla was diagnosed with Brachio-Oto-Renal Syndrome, and doctors at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, performed a life-saving kidney transplant January 28, 2008.  An estimated $35,000 is being raised by Myrtle Beach volunteers.