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Have you ever asked yourself whether you would rush into a burning building to save someone?
Or risk your life to pull someone else from the path of a moving car? Most of us never have
to make such choices, but we wonder what we would do.
Of course there are many other ways to help save lives that are much safer -- such as by
giving blood or by joining the
National Bone Marrow Registry. Without a doubt, these
are greatly needed acts of generosity, since it can take hundreds of blood donations to save one patient,
and millions of registered bone marrow donors to find a match for someone needing a transplant.
But there is one act that is available to most people, that really can save a person's life all by
itself. That is the act of donating a kidney to
a stranger.
About 60,000 people in the United States are currently on the waiting list to receive a kidney.
That's an overwhelming number to think about --
but a 2001 survey by the National Kidney Foundation found that 25% of people surveyed, said they
would consider donating a kidney to someone they had never met.
In a nation of over 200 million adults, that's over
50 million potential donors! Of these 50 million who would consider donating a kidney, if only
slightly more than
one in a thousand actually donated, it would eliminate the shortage of kidneys for
those waiting for transplants. All that needs to be done is to spread the word, and to get more
people to consider it. Still, the decision is not one to be made lightly,
and the only "right" decision is the one that you are most comfortable with. Our aim is simply
to reach people who may have never even thought of the idea before.
We are not affiliated with any transplant center, or with any other organizations like
the National Kidney Foundation or
United Network for Organ Sharing, and we emphatically
do not provide any medical advice or counseling. KidneyMission
was founded solely to spread the idea of anonymous kidney donation,
through online advertising and other means, to people who
might not have considered it, and to put them
in touch with organizations and local transplant centers that can provide more information.
Copyright 2006-2008 KidneyMission.org
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