In February of 1999, Payton announced that he had a a rare liver disease known as primary sclerosing cholangitis, which soon led to the growth of a cancerous tumor on his liver. As a well-loved public figure and celebrity, he had been offered the option of moving up on the waiting list for liver organ donors.[1] He declined this offer (because it meant someone else would die because of him) and accepted a place on the waiting list; according to a surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, he might have survived if he had accepted when his disease was first diagnosed.[25] Payton spent his final months as an advocate for organ transplants, appearing in many commercials to encourage others to donate organs, although by the time his first appeal was recorded, he had been told that his illness was already too far advanced for transplantation to have been a viable option.[7] The following April, Payton made a final public appearance at a Chicago Cubs game with Mike Ditka, where he threw......
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