Read personal accounts from living kidney donors, including why they decided to become donors, what they experienced during their donation journey and how being a donor changed their lives.
My family has hereditary polycystic kidney disease. My mother has it, also my grandfather, three of my aunts and uncles, one cousin, and my little sister—that’s who we know of so far. I was lucky to be one of the ones that did not inherit the disease, and I have known for a long time …
I decided last year that I was going to anonymously donate a kidney. I watched a program about organ donation and learned how awful it was to go through dialysis. I had no idea. The idea of enduring this procedure 3 times a week, for the rest of their lives—it seemed like a terribly unfair way …
Is there an age limit for donating a kidney? It’s a question many potential kidney donors ask, and Sander Orent has the answer. Sander donated his kidney at age 72 through the Voucher Program to secure a kidney for his wife of 40 years. This is Sander’s story. My wife first went into renal failure …
What happens when you want to donate a kidney to a specific person, but you are not a match? That’s what happened to Sophia Jackson, who learned that Brooklyn police officer Vadrien Alston needed a kidney and decided she wanted to donate a kidney to her. This is Sophia’s story. About a year ago, I …
I was familiar with kidney donation, but I’d always thought you could only donate to a family member. Then I met Stephanie through my Bible study group and learned she was about to have her second kidney transplant. A friend of Stephanie’s mother donated on her behalf, allowing her to receive a life-giving transplant. Praying …
It’s over. I won. Today’s sixth stage started at about 6:30 a.m. and six and a half hours later, I won the stage and the race as well. (But it’s never as simple as that, is it? I’ll put a pin in that thought and come back to it later.) My top competitor, a Japanese …
We’re on a day off today due to weather. I’m still ahead by about 6.7 kilometers with one stage to go tomorrow. I thought I’d write just a little about the environment and how I’m doing physically at this point. “Beautiful and malevolent” were the words used in a guidebook I flipped through before departure—and …
Today was a game of last man standing—and at the end, I was still up. After five stages I’m up by 6.7 kilometers on second place. After tying for first on Stage 1, I’ve won all the stages since. (They’ve had a hard time with mistakes in record-keeping, but have fixed those mistakes when pointed …
Stage 3 went well—despite another 1.1-km loop course on a tiny speck of land in the Orne Islands and some wicked wind, I held and expanded my lead a bit. I’m still leading the race. We’ve settled into a rhythm at this point. Breakfast 7 or 7:30 a.m. 11 a.m. race brief with departure time only, no …