Kidney Donor Interest

^    Please share my story!   ^

Kidney Donor Interest

Don Brown spends so much of his time

helping

others

now, he needs our help.

Kidney Donor Interest

Please share my story!

Don Brown is looking for

a kidney donor!

How can we help?


Testimonial Video for

Don Brown

We'd like to thank everyone that was included in this heartfelt testimonial video.

In order of appearance:

Emily Cohen, Vickie Landis, Pat Heller, Terry Busby, Beth Howard, Rachel Prato & Holly Rehfuss.

  • I met Don in a widow/widowers group Don started, it was really a lifesaver. The impact that this group and Don has made is immeasurable.

                                            - Emily Cohen

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  • Don Brown has such a naturally giving heart. He has a life worth fighting for.

                                            -Vickie Landis

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Let's help Don find a healthy kidney!

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Why I need a Kidney Transplant:

It all started back when...

About me

Hello, my name is Don Brown, I am a widower and I live in SouthEastern Pennsylvania.


My kidneys are failing due to exposure as a young adult to heavy metals while working in my family’s scrap metal business. 


In order to slow the progression of my kidney disease, I began a plant-based diet and a regimen of weight training and exercise which has enabled me to survive this long.


A living kidney transplant is my only viable course of treatment. With that, I can be blessed with a normal life expectancy for another 20 or more years and continue the work that I have done to improve and enrich the lives of others.

WHAT I LOVE DOING FOR OTHERS

 

I am an Advisor to the Board of Directors of the REST House for Women (https://restconnection.org/), in Quakertown, PA, a 501c3 organization, to help women in need of a fresh start, from an unfortunate relationship or other unexpected life circumstance.   

 

In 20I9 I founded and run the Widows/Widowers Support Group of Bucks County (https://www.meetup.com/widows-widowers-support-group-of-bucks-county/?_cookie-check=KmwVwYEhwj1iMkO-) which has grown to more than 300 members.  We meet twice weekly by Zoom and have periodic gatherings to support each other through our grief experiences.

 

My company, Funding4Flippers LLC (https://www.funding4flippers.com/), finances the purchase of distressed properties for renovation and then sale to young families so they can start and grow their families.  It is very rewarding to see the faces of young couples purchase their first home.

 

I privately mentor young people to help them start, run and grow their fledgling businesses.

 

Also, I am in the process of setting up organizations and funding to provide low cost housing to Penn State University and University of Delaware for the next 50 to 100 years.

 

HOW A KIDNEY WILL GREATLY AFFECT MY LIFE

 

A kidney transplant will enable me to continue and grow the work I do for others as well as help me enjoy my life.

 

HOW YOU COULD HELP ME:

You can help me simply by sharing my story on social media. Sharing would be like throwing a life preserver into the water to save me from drowning. You wouldn’t even get wet. But you would be helping to save my life. 


Persons interested in speaking directly with a living person about donating on my behalf (
no commitment) can reach out the kidney donor interest button above.


You can also find out more info under, "considering kidney donation" via NKDO's

website HERE. (https://www.nkdo.org/considering-kidney-donation.)


KIDNEY DONATION BASICS

A kidney transplant will restore my health and will allow me to live a normal life again. A kidney transplant will enable me to live a long healthy life and continue helping others.


Most people have two healthy kidneys but can live a normal active life with only one. For that reason, kidney transplants have become routine in saving lives of people with kidney disease. Kidney donors typically spend two days in the hospital and soon resume normal activities.


ABOUT KIDNEY DONATION


You do not need to be a match in order to donate a kidney for me.
  In fact, a direct donation likely would not be an optimal match for me.  But, if you are healthy and eligible to donate, you could donate a kidney that would go to another person for whom you are a better match while giving me a “voucher” for a living kidney to be donated by someone else whose kidney would be a better match me (like a trade that benefits two or more kidney patients – each patient would receive a more optimally matched kidney).  The National Kidney Registry has facilitated more than 5,000 such matching transplants.


Your voucher would be activated upon your donation.  I would be prioritized to receive a living kidney in an upcoming transplant chain, typically within twelve weeks after your donation.

 

And, since each voucher donor starts or helps to complete a unique “kidney transplant chain,” I would receive a well-matched kidney, and your kidney would initiate a linked chain of compatible best-matching kidney transplants enabling two or three additional kidney patients to receive their own kidney transplants.

Read more about the Voucher Program HERE.

(https://www.kidneyregistry.org/for-centers/voucher-program/)

 

For convenience you could donate near your home at one of about 100 kidney transplant centers nationwide affiliated with the National Kidney Registry. 

To find a transplant center near you, see this list HERE. (https://www.kidneytransplantcenters.org/)



And, as a voucher donor, you would be entitled to the Donor Shield suite of protections not available elsewhere.  Those protections are described HERE: (https://www.donor-shield.org/kidney-donors/)


If you would consider becoming a donor to save my life and the lives of others, please fill out the form above (red button, Kidney Donor Interest) and someone will be in touch with you to talk about next steps, (no commitment) and what to expect.


YOU CAN HELP ME JUST BY SHARING MY STORY


Even if you don't want to be or cannot be a kidney donor personally, you probably know someone who might be interested.  You can help me by sharing my story on social media and by email.

 

Just by sharing my story you will help to save my life. Sharing would be like throwing a life preserver into the water to save me from drowning.

 

Sharing the link for this webpage is the same thing. The more people who know of my need, the better my chance to reach a person willing to save my life by being a kidney donor.


ABOUT COSTS


Reasonable cost reimbursement is legal. Title III of The National Organ Transplant Act, 1984, Pub. L. 998-507, allows for reasonable payments associated with the removal, transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, and storage of human organs as well as the expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of that organ. While reimbursement of expenses is legal, payment for the acquisition of an organ is not. In addition, the kidney recipient’s medical insurance usually covers the donor’s and the recipient’s costs of medical care and hospitalization.

 

Donors donating through the National Kidney Registry as Non-Directed Donors receive Donor Shield Protections. To learn about Donor Shield Protections please watch this video: https://youtu.be/MIXMp4PymMI and read https://www.donor-shield.org/kidney-donors/.

 

The National Kidney Registry (NKR) offers Donor Shield protections to all donors who participate in an NKR swap or donate at a  Donor Shield Center.  Those protections include:

  1. Lost Wage Reimbursement
  2. Travel and Lodging Reimbursement
  3. Donation Life Insurance
  4. Donation Disability Insurance
  5. Legal Representation
  6. Coverage for Uncovered Complications
  7. Reimbursement for Travel, Lodging and Lost Wages for Uncovered Complications
  8. Living Donor Kidney Prioritization if they ever need a kidney themselves.

 


Hear real stories from other living kidney donors, host Laurie Lee & Donor Diaries


Donor Diaries is a podcast about the beauty and messiness of living organ donation. Get ready for some amazing stories about what happens when people decide to share their organs with other people,

when people chose to share life.

Listen on Donor Diaries or Download Audio

KIDNEY DONATION BASICS

Most people have two healthy kidneys but can live a normal active life with only one.

For that reason, kidney transplants have become routine in saving lives of people with kidney disease. Kidney donors typically spend two days in the hospital and soon resume normal activities.

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