You do not need to be a match in order to donate a kidney for me.  In fact, a direct donation likely would not be an optimal match for me.  But, if you are healthy and eligible to donate, you could donate a kidney that would go to another person for whom you are a better match while giving me a “voucher” for a living kidney to be donated by someone else whose kidney would be a better match me (like a trade that benefits two or more kidney patients – each patient would receive a more optimally matched kidney).  The National Kidney Registry has facilitated more than 5,000 such matching transplants.

 

Your voucher would be activated upon your donation.  I would be prioritized to receive a living kidney in an upcoming transplant chain, typically within twelve weeks after your donation.

 

And, since each voucher donor starts a unique “kidney transplant chain,” I would receive a well-matched kidney, and your kidney would initiate a linked chain of compatible best-matching kidney transplants enabling two or three additional kidney patients to receive their own kidney transplants.  You can read more about voucher donation here: https://www.kidneyregistry.org/for-centers/voucher-program/

 

For convenience you could donate near your home at one of about 100 kidney transplant centers nationwide affiliated with the National Kidney Registry.  To find a transplant center near you, see this list: https://www.kidneytransplantcenters.org/

 

And, as a voucher donor, you would be entitled to the Donor Shield suite of protections not available elsewhere.  Those protections are described here: https://www.donor-shield.org/

 

I am working with the National Kidney Donation Organization to find a donor (NKDO is a not-for-profit organization assisting kidney donors and recipients, online at NKDO.org).  To talk with a living kidney donor, please contact EJ Tamez at e.tamez@nkdo.org

 

If you would consider becoming a donor to save my life and the lives of others, please visit: https://nkr.donorscreen.org/register/now?src=nkdo