Living Donors Are….

If you finished the statement by saying “saints,” then you’re just the reader I’m looking for. I want to dispel that very idea! Please read on.

How about living donors are…”risk takers”? That one too.

You see, so many people have preconceived notions about us living donors, that I think it gets in the way of more people even considering the possibility of doing it themselves.

With nearly 100,000 people waiting years for a deceased-donor kidney, and more than a dozen dying each day while waiting, we clearly need to increase the fairly static number of living donors: roughly 6,000 each year. The first step, as always, is information–we need to give a clearer picture of what living donors are and are not so that people don’t automatically take themselves out of the running. After that, I just want people to have an open mind as they continue to inform themselves about the process.

I’m neither a saint nor a risk taker, and most living donors I know (and I know plenty!) aren’t either. And so, in honor of Living Donor Day today (April 3), I’m dusting off a blog post about these myths and a Medium article on this very subject. Hope you’ll check them out and share them.

For related posts and information on my book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, be sure to explore the rest of my website.