Some of the most dedicated, ardent advocates of living donation I know are neither living donors nor transplant recipients themselves. That’s surely the case for these two contributors–Tammy Wright and Jenine Lewis–to our book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation.

For Tammy, who has helped donor and recipient pairs as a transplant coordinator for nearly 30 years at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, it’s a profession she deeply loves. For Jenine, who came ever so close to donating one of her own kidneys, it’s a passion and an avocation.

You may think that once someone is approved as a donor, it means smooth sailing ahead and just depends on everyone’s schedule. Alas, that’s not the case for many donors and recipients. Even before COVID came along, life always had a way of throwing complications in people’s paths even when the stakes are frighteningly high.

Example? Recipient gets so sick before the scheduled transplant that it has to be postponed indefinitely. Or donor gets the flu and needs to reschedule. Or an overweight donor learns that he’s prediabetic and has to start an extended period of dieting and nutrition counseling. I could go on.

In Tammy’s book chapter, “Helping Overcome Transplant Obstacles,” she relates several daunting situations she has helped her patients navigate. Many of the creative solutions she draws on were not available when she started out in this profession (or even when I donated in 2006). Paired donation (kidney exchange), notably, often holds the answer to a donation problem, and Tammy’s chapter describes some pioneering efforts.

Tammy movingly relates how she’s worked–and cried–with patients at each new disappointment. Named “Nurse of the Year” at Sharp in 2020, Tammy is as modest as she is private. “I am pretty boring but love what I do and enjoy helping people get transplanted,” she says simply.

When she’s not working, Tammy enjoys being active in Transplant Trekkers, a nonprofit San Diego group dedicated to raising awareness of living organ donation. (She proudly admits also to being a dog lover.)

Like Tammy, Jenine is a San Diegan who does all she can to support living donation, through Transplant Trekkers. Jenine’s book chapter, “How a Would-be Donor Became an Advocate,” relates how she set out determined to donate her kidney to her good friend. After a very long, circuitous route, she finally got the green light for donor surgery in 2016 until…

We’ll let Jenine’s chapter tell what happened and why. Though she was initially heartbroken about not being able to gift her own kidney, Jenine says she soon learned that she could provide valuable help to other potential donors. She’s been an active volunteer in raising awareness of living organ donation in the San Diego area. She often counsels others who have been similarly disappointed and shows them how they can still help their intended recipient.

A youthful grandmother of three, Jenine enjoys hiking, as you can see from the photo. Obviously, Transplant Trekkers, which interestingly raises awareness of living organ donation through virtual, customized hikes, is a perfect fit.

Fun Fact: Transplant Trekkers is the (independent) re-creation of the original WELD (Women Encouraging Living Donation) San Diego group. WELD later teamed up with Donate Life America and added chapters around the country. It now accepts men, so the acronym officially stands for We Encourage Living Donation.)

Diane Brockington, herself a living donor and a tireless champion for living donation, founded WELD in 2015. She now leads the original San Diego group, which renamed itself the Transplant Trekkers. It was Diane who introduced me to WELD and all these impressive women.