How do I look for a kidney donor?

[Allison]

I think the post above me covers most ideas. If you belong to a church or other house of worship, put the word out there. You never know; in my hometown, a woman at my mother's church needed a liver, and a person she did not know that well who sat in the same pew as she agreed to be tested. It turned out she was a match, and she donated.

Another way is to have your family/friends go to cafepress.com and look up the kidney transplant t shirts - they say things like "My sister/wife etc needs a kidney transplant" (or mine says Kidney Transplant Recipient). I wear it in public to big downtown festivals so people will at least see that transplant works.

If possible, you may want to be listed at more than one center. There is one hospital in my state that does transplants; they refused to evaluate me, but my neph got me evaluated and listed at his former medical school. I only waited 4 months (but I was both diabetic and had kidney failure too) Since then, my dialysis center has started referring more patients to my center because they see shorter wait times there.

But the main problem is the lack of donors - there are plenty of organs and not enough givers.