Richard Abshire/ Dallas Morning News

Scot McClain is a man with a mission and a message.

His mission is to represent Texas in the U.S. Transplant Games in Minneapolis from July 28 to Aug. 1 by competing in swimming, basketball and tennis.

His message is that the life-saving decision to be an organ donor must be shared with family.

"The biggest thing that people don't understand is that it's a decision that needs to be discussed with your family now," Mr. McClain said, because signing a donor card or putting a decal on a driver's license is no guarantee that a person's wish to become a donor will be fulfilled. "Your next of kin is going to make that decision for you."

Mr. McClain, a former high school coach who lives in Garland and teaches math at Richland College, felt so healthy in 1988 that he was shocked to learn he had hepatitis C.

About half of the people who have the disease don't know where they got it, he said. And, in its early stages, many don't know they have it.

He fought hard to live a normal life with his two daughters, and his parents were wonderful caregivers, but his condition eventually worsened and he was put on a liver transplant list in 2000.

He received his transplant on New Year's Day 2001 after being hospitalized 12 times in 2000.

"There was no question," he said. "If I had not had a transplant I definitely wouldn't have made it another year."

He competes in the games to honor his donor's family and to show how fully a transplant recipient can recover.

"My quality of life is outstanding," he said.

He is training for his second trip to the biennial Transplant Games, where he will join thousands of other athletes who are transplant recipients, their families, donor families and transplant professionals. Two years ago in Orlando, Mr. McClain finished sixth in the 50-meter swim and reached the tennis quarterfinals.

This year's games, hosted by the University of Minnesota, will mark the 50th anniversary of the first successful kidney transplant in Boston.

Mr. McClain volunteers as a speaker for Southwest Transplant Alliance, spreading the word about organ donation and dispelling myths about the process.

"The thing that really concerns me is that we're burying organs that could be used to save lives," he said.

For more information, call the Southwest Transplant Alliance at 214-522-0255.