For anyone who has ever wondered

No one grows up planning to give a kidney. Then you hear someone's story.

Coworkers. Church friends. The parent you wave to at school pickup. The person waiting often can't bring themselves to ask, so here a story does the asking.

Finding out is free and private, and it commits you to nothing.

See if you could be a donor

Waiting on a kidney yourself? Start here

One person, looking

Start with one story.

Everyone listed here chose to be. Read it the way you would read a message from a friend of a friend.

kidney · Dallas, TX

I've been on the waitlist for 15 years

I love my life and I am a happy person that wants to continue living.

Read Maria's story

And one person who said yes

A Kidney, A Setback, and a Second Chance: My Story

My father has polycystic kidney disease — a condition that runs deep in our family. Relatives who've lost both kidneys and needed transplants of their own. Others likely facing the same road. For years, I assumed I carried the same 50/50 odds of the disease myself. Honestly, I should have gone through screening long before I did. I'd had symptoms that felt similar to what I'd heard described with PKD — though they turned out to be unrelated — but I avoided testing because I didn't want to face the possibility that I had it too. Then an unrelated genetic screening finally cleared me. That result opened a door: I could be my father's donor.

A living donor, and one of the people who built this.

Read his story

Written in the language it was told in.

Not the donor? Pass Maria's story on

What finding out actually involves

Nothing here commits you. You can stop at any point, for any reason, and your name is not given to the person waiting.

You can step off at any point, for any reason.

Most people who come forward learn at one of these stages that they are not a match, and that is an ordinary outcome.

The whole guide, at your pace Ask a living donor what it was like

See if you could be a donor

What people assume, and what's true

People assume: “It will cost me money”

The donor doesn't get the medical bill.

The recipient's health insurance covers the donor's evaluation, surgery, hospital stay and follow-up. Programs like NLDAC reimburse travel, lodging, dependent care and lost wages for donors who need it. Donors are never paid, and no payments ever change hands on My Kidney Story.

Source: National Kidney Foundation

People assume: “I have to be related to them”

You don't have to be related.

You do not. More and more living donors have no family tie to the person at all — spouses, friends, colleagues, and people who read a story about a stranger and decided to find out.

Source: UNOS

People assume: “It only helps one person”

Not a match for them? An exchange can still get them a kidney.

If you are not a good fit for the person you came for, paired exchange can still get them a kidney: you give to someone else, and another donor gives to them.

Source: UNOS

Not you? Pass it on.

Most living donors came forward after hearing one person's story. Passing one on takes a moment and asks nothing else of you.

If you ever needed a kidney, you might hope someone would read your story.

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You are sharing Maria's page.

Bringing it to your group? Get the words

Waiting on a kidney? Let your neighbors find you.

Tell your story once, the way you would tell a friend, and get a page with a link and a QR code. Your page does the asking; a transplant center handles the medical part.

How it works for you Talk to someone who's been there Looking for a transplant center?

Start your campaign

Maybe that could be you. Or someone you send this to.

Finding out is free and private, and you can stop at any time.

See if you could be a donor Pass it on

The numbers, if you want them

Every number here links to its source and carries a date.

6,521: living donor kidney transplants in 2025; Each one is a person who found a living donor. Living donation was the only part of the transplant system that grew in 2025 — deceased donation fell for the first time in over a decade.; UNOS, 2025 full year
1 in 4: living kidney donors give through an exchange; 23.4% of living donor kidney transplants ran through a paired exchange or a chain. Someone willing but not a match still gets their person a kidney — they donate to a stranger, and a stranger's donor gives to them.; OPTN/SRTR Annual Data Report, 2024 data, published 2026
0.9: donor deaths per 10,000 surgeries; Across 164,593 US living kidney donors, deaths around the operation fell from 3.0 per 10,000 in the 1990s to 0.9 per 10,000 in 2013–2022. More than 98% of donor operations are now keyhole surgery.; JAMA — Massie et al., 2024, 1993–2022 donor cohort
92,000+: people are waiting for a kidney; The wait for a deceased donor kidney is typically three to five years. A living donor is the one route that does not depend on waiting for a phone call.; American Kidney Fund, reviewed March 2026