Some specifics on Kidney Donation

I've had a few questions as to why I'm giving a kidney so I thought I'd clear things up.

The story starts with a guy named Darren who is the husband of a good friend of Suzi’s. Darren is about my age and has kidney disease. We were having dinner with them and I started asking about what it was like to be on dialysis.

In hearing him talk and getting solid answers to my questions (like: don’t we need 2 kidneys? Who pays for the operation? What is life like when you have kidney failure?), I felt like I could help.

I got tested to see if I was a match which is simply some blood draws and found out we were not compatible.

At that point, I made the decision that just because I wasn’t a good match for my friend, why wouldn’t I give to someone else? After all they are a friend of someone else.

An analogy came to me that hopefully explains things a bit:
Let’s say I had two winter coats and I only needed one. I tried to give my other coat away to friends but they all didn’t need one. I did find a friend who was dying because he didn’t have one, but mine simply didn’t fit him so it would do him no good.

Then I heard about other people who were dying from not having a winter coat. Whoever they are, I’d like to think I’d give my extra one away rather than holding on to my second one “just in case” while that other person dies.

With that said, I am perfectly healthy and from that abundance of health, I am working on sharing with someone less fortunate.

This doesn’t make me a saint or better than anyone else. Anyone who donates blood is doing something just as noble.

I'd love to hear your questions/comments...