News & Events
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Making Headlines
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. .
Transplant first gives hope to many
A young Melbourne tiler, Davorin Gelemanovic, faced a grim future last year. Suffering severe kidney failure, his hopes for a transplant were dashed when he found out his mother, who shares the same blood group, was unfit to donate a kidney. His father has a different blood group and was deemed incompatible. 
Lotsa Helping Hands:
The National Kidney Foundation’s (NKF) "People Like Us" initiative, a growing movement to empower, educate and enable people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), transplant recipients, donors and family members, has partnered with Lotsa Helping Hands to provide an online resource for its many care givers.
Lotsa Helping Hands is a simple, immediate way for friends, family, colleagues and neighbors to assist loved ones in need. It is an easy-to-use, private group online calendar, specifically designed for organizing helpers, where everyone can pitch in with meals delivery, rides, and other necessary tasks. There is no cost to your family to use this system. For more information on how this site works visit or to set up an account visit: www.kidney.lotsahelpinghands.com
Transplant Organizations Request Funding to Boost Organ Donation
April 14, 2005 -- Transplant surgeon Dr. Ginny Bumgardner and pediatric resident Dr. Trent Tipple presented testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies today to request $25 million in funding for the Organ Donation and Recovery Improvement Act of 2004.
New Zealand Investigates Paying Live Donors "Income Support"
The New Zealand Health Ministry is investigating a plan to pay live organ donors up to eight weeks of welfare assistance to aid in their recuperation. Up to 350 New Zealanders are on the waiting list for an organ transplant. The New Zealand Kidney Foundation hopes the government will implement a payment scheme, similar to maternity leave, where the employee would be paid 80% of their income. It costs up to $60,000 a year to keep someone alive on dialysis, which is funded by district health boards, while a transplant patient's medication and follow-up care costs were only about $11,000 annually. (From Transplant Chronicles*, Vol. 12, No. 1)
A New Georgia Law Compensates Living Organ Donors
An Atlanta resident and mother of two, Elizabeth Moore knew that something was not quite right with her six-month-old daughter, Helen. She had problems eating and showed delays in her development. After several visits to the doctor, Helen was diagnosed with kidney failure.
Organ Donation/Assistance for Living Donors
President Bush signed H.R. 3926, the Organ Donation & Recovery Improvement Act, on April 5, 2004 (Public Law 108-216). The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) worked with the sponsors to help craft the final bill.
Diabetes and Transplantation Task Force
On May 7 to 8, 2003, more than 60 physicians, surgeons, nurses and allied health professionals met in Chicago, IL, to discuss state-of-the-art approaches to transplantation in the clinical management of patients with diabetes and advanced chronic kidney disease. Four workgroups addressed pretransplantation evaluation and management, therapeutic alternatives for treatment of patients with chronic kidney disease, posttransplantation diabetes mellitus, and improving long-term kidney transplant outcomes in patients with diabetes. This report summarizes the deliberations and recommendations of the task force.
Recommendations from the National Conference on the Wait List for Kidney Transplantation (7/03)
In March 2002, over 100 members of the transplant community met in Philadelphia for a meeting designed to address problems associated with the growing number of patients seeking kidney transplantation and added to the waiting list each year. Recommendations from the conference were published in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Transplantation. For a copy of the article, please contact livingdonors@kidney.org with your request.
Visit the National Kidney Foundation Newsroom for additional articles on organ and tissue donation.
