Knowledge is power

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. – Dr. Seuss

 

If you’re thinking about donating a kidney, there are lots of great resources to help you learn more!

The National Kidney Foundation should be your first stop:

http://www.kidney.org/transplantation/livingdonors/index.cfm

Living Donors Online has a cool program that links potential donors with a Living Donor Buddy who has donated a kidney and can advise you through the process:

http://www.livingdonorsonline.org/

Sign up to be an organ, tissue or bone marrow donor if you haven’t done it through your driver’s license registration, or learn more about donation:

http://donatelife.net/

Have a loved one who needs a kidney, but your blood types are incompatible? (Organ donor matching is the same as with blood donor matching. For example, people with O negative blood can donate to anyone.) Paired donation and/or kidney donor chains can help! You can ask your recipient’s transplant center about their partnerships, as well as:

Alliance for Paired Donation:

http://www.paireddonation.org/

National Kidney Registry:

http://www.kidneyregistry.org/

Have a loved one with kidney disease hoping to learn more?

The American Association of Kidney Patients:

http://www.aakp.org/

There are also Yahoo forums for specific kidney diseases, like the IgA Nephropathy forum:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/iga-nephropathy/

And the American Transplant Foundation is working to end America’s shortage of human transplant organs:

http://www.americantransplantfoundation.org/