You Can Help

Share our story with your friends and families, so they might share with their friends, and they may share with their friends and so on, and ultimately we can find a living donor for Matt and hopefully for others, too. Living donation is our answer. Please LIKE and SHARE our Facebook page. 

Living donation is a voluntary gift of one kidney (we only need one) by a person who is able. Donors are thoroughly tested to ensure a SAFE and HEALTHY outcome for both the Donor and the Recipient. All medical expenses, travel, lodging and time lost at work will be covered.   

Matt’s blood type is A. He can receive a kidney from an A or O donor. The antigen match is no longer an issue. The transplant will take place at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida – one of the leading healthcare facilities in the world – where over 100 kidney transplants are performed each year.   Find out if you can be Matt’s Donor. Please contact Christine Schneider, Mayo Clinic Donor Coordinator at

 (904) 956-3249.

· We are born with an extra kidney – you only need one to live a full, healthy, long life.

· The majority of the donor surgery is done laproscopically, with tiny incisions.

· The recuperation period is generally 2 weeks for those with a desk job and 6 weeks for those whose job entails heavy lifting.

· The surgery would be done at the Mayo Clinic, a hospital that has some of the best surgeons in the world.

· All medical expenses would be paid by our insurance benefits.

· Most donors say if they had another extra kidney they would donate again in a heartbeat and that it is one of the best experiences of their life.

The evaluation process is meant to protect the Donor. It ensures that the Donor is healthy enough to donate a kidney. While there are inherent risks of living donation and with any surgery, the rigorous evaluation process provides a systematic way of determining any specific, known risks to Donors. 

When someone donates an organ to someone else, they are providing a life-sustaining gift. But there are many things they should consider carefully before making the decision to become a living donor. 

Imagine you have a lottery ticket in your pocket. It is a winning lottery ticket with a jackpot that is so valuable it is literally priceless, but only if you give it away to someone. The odds are very, very small that you would ever be able to use the lottery ticket yourself or even give it to someone you know. So what would you do? Would you keep the winning lottery ticket in your pocket your entire life, literally taking it to the grave? Or would you give it to a stranger and in doing so, dramatically change and perhaps even save their life?