The Home for Donor Families Online
Whether you are a donor family, healthcare professional, transplant recipient or friend, we welcome you to the National Donor Family Council's new online home. There are many things to see and do here, and we hope you'll visit us often. Comments or questions? E-mail donorfamily@kidney.org or call 800.622.9010. We'd love to hear from you!
2008 U.S. Transplant Games Sessions
At the Games, the NKF will provide workshops and sharing sessions for donor family members. These workshops give you an opportunity to share with other donor families, honor your loved one in creative ways, find support and answers to your questions, and learn more about donation and transplantation.
National Donor Recognition Ceremony and Workshop (NDRCW)
July 20-22, 2007, Washington, DC
The 2007 National Donor Recognition Ceremony and Workshop (NDRCW), the 10th Federal Government ceremony to honor the Nation’s living and deceased donors, took place in Washington, DC on July 20-22, 2007.
This event was sponsored by the Division of Transplantation, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the assistance of the National Kidney Foundation’s (NKF) National Donor Family Council and many other transplant associations and organizations.
Saturday’s program included a plenary session, workshops and sharing sessions for living organ and marrow donors, organ and tissue donor families, and donation professionals. The Sunday recognition ceremony featured special presentations and tributes in honor of the generosity of America’s heroes – living organ and marrow donors as well as those who donated organs and/or tissues after death. Among the recipient speakers on Sunday sharing their story of receiving the gift of life, were a cord blood recipient, kidney-pancreas recipient, and a cornea recipient. A special video tribute was shown, with names and photos of loved ones who donated organs and/or tissues after death as well as living donors.
The NDRCW is held every other year, and all the Nation’s living donors, donor families and friends are invited to attend. There is no cost for registration or for attending the Saturday workshops or Sunday’s ceremony. Individuals or sponsoring organizations are responsible for costs such as housing, travel, meals and incidentals. In 2007, over 400 people attended the NDRCW, including donor families, living donors, transplant recipients, donation professionals, families, and friends.
For more information about the activities that took place at the 2007 National Donor Recognition Ceremony and Workshop, please contact the Division of Transplantation at 301-443-7577, visit www.organdonor.gov or call the National Donor Family Council at 800-622-9010 or email us at donorfamily@kidney.org. Please stay tuned to www.donorfamily.org for information on upcoming events.
There is still time to register! The registration deadline has been extended to Monday, June 4.
Why didn't they write?
By Jim Gleason, heart recipient
In the movie Return to Me, there was a touching scene about the difficulty many transplant recipients experience in writing to their donor family. In this scene, Grace, a heart recipient, still hasn’t mailed the letter she wrote after receiving her transplant a year ago. Her sister offers the encouragement she needs to finally mail the letter. Though this is a fictional story, it does capture the fears and hesitations of many recipients.
While donor families and recipients
aren’t under any obligation to
communicate, many do so. Others
want to, but never do. I asked some
recipients for insight about why they
hadn’t written to their donors, even
to express a simple thank you. Their
answers show that even if the donor
family hasn’t heard from them,
recipients are incredibly grateful for
the gift. 
A Donor Sister's Thoughts on the U.S. Transplant Games
In 1999, my brother Paul died from massive head injuries after a terrible car wreck. He waited for me, the last family member, to arrive at the hospital before he finally let go. As you can imagine, we were heart-broken, stunned and along with that, we were immediately faced with a very an important decision. But we wouldn't know how important until years later.
