FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

National Kidney Registry Exceeds 50,000 Twitter Followers

More Patients Learning About Swaps Through Social Media

New York, NY – February 24, 2011. Today, the National Kidney Registry announced that its Twitter following broke through the 50,000 level. With over 80,000 patients waiting for a kidney transplant, an ever increasing number are educating themselves about kidney transplant “swaps” via the National Kidney Registry’s Tweets.

"The magnitude of our following on Twitter is allowing us to educate many more people about our lifesaving kidney swap program while increasing awareness in the general community”, Said Joe Sinacore, Counselor and Social Media Director at the National Kidney Registry.  “I am humbled and amazed by the rapidly growing base of support we are receiving from social media such as Twitter.”        

 “While on dialysis, I met many patients that were not aware that “swapping” donors was even possible.  They thought that their only option, other than a direct donor match, was to be placed on the deceased donor list and wait years to get transplanted.  Twitter and other social media sites will help educate patients and direct them to National Kidney Registry member centers to help get enrolled in the National Kidney Registry program” said Gary LeBlanc a dialysis patient who received a kidney transplant several months ago in a swap organized by the National Kidney Registry.  Gary’s wife wanted to donate but was incompatible, so his transplant center entered him and his wife in the National Kidney Registry and within 90 days a match was found.

To date, the National Kidney Registry has facilitated 240 transplants and is working with the majority of the top 20 transplant centers in the United States. A list of National Kidney Registry centers can be viewed on the NKR website at www.kidneyregistry.org. 

About the National Kidney Registry

The National Kidney Registry is a nonprofit organization with the mission to save and improve the lives of people facing kidney failure by increasing the quality, speed, and number of living donor transplants in the world.  The National Kidney Registry has facilitated more paired exchange transplants than any other organization in the world.

Contact:

Tom Mollo

Executive Director
National Kidney Registry
1-800-936-1627

tm@kidneyregistry.org

http://www.kidneyregistry.org/

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