MADISON, Wis. — UW Health’s transplant program marked its 60th anniversary Sunday with a community gathering honoring the patients, donors, families and health care professionals who have shaped six decades of organ-transplant care. The free event at the Alliant Energy Center celebrated recipients of transplants, living donors, deceased organ donors and their families. It also highlighted how advances in medicine have expanded treatment options since UW Health began performing kidney transplants in 1966. For Mary Baliker, the milestone is inseparable from her own experience. She was diagnosed with kidney disease at age 9, when dialysis and transplantation were far less available to children. Her parents were told she might have only six months to live. By the time Baliker was 17, treatment options had changed. Her brother was tested as a potential donor and was found to be an identical match. She received her first kidney transplant from him nearly 47 years ago. “I’m here today because transplant works,” Baliker said. “And I’m living a healthy, normal life, and my brother’s here celebrating as well.” Baliker said her brother has also remained healthy after becoming a living donor. Over the decades, she has watched transplant medicine develop, including procedures that have made some parts of donation and recovery less invasive. She encouraged people who are considering living donation not to rule themselves out based on age or other health concerns without first speaking with specialists. “Don’t make the decision yourself,” Baliker said. “Always talk to the transplant team, because there’s still opportunity, oftentimes, to be a donor that you might not even know.” The transplant program has been a major part of Baliker’s life not only as a patient but also through more than 20 years working at UW Hospital. She said the anniversary represents the second chances that transplantation has provided to her and many others. “I’m grateful that I’ve seen the change and opportunities that transplant has given me but has given so many the chance to have that second gift of life,” she said.