Her birthday wish was to save a life by giving a kidney to a complete stranger... next week she will

By Comtex News
February 01, 2011 4:06 PM

(via COMTEX News Network)--

Nineteen people die every day in the United States waiting for a kidney transplant, on the governments organ transplant waiting list. Kim Benders mother hoped she would not be part of that morbid statistic. Kim knew that her mother Peggy Bender, age 64, from Colorado Springs, Colo. needed a kidney transplant very soon.

Claire Husted, from Palm Springs, Calif. was turning 50 years old. Claire is an ex-nun and was a volunteer in West Africa for 3.5 years, and has spent a lifetime helping other people. She wanted to celebrate the whole year from the moment of her 49th birthday to her 50th. As part of that celebration, she wanted to give thanks for the many blessings in her life.

Claire decided to help 12 strangers in celebration of her 50th year of life. At that time, she had no idea what she would do or how she would meet the people that she would help. She decided that one way she would help was she wanted to become a living organ donor. She never had any children herself, but wanted to give life to someone- so she decided a great way to do that would be to donate a kidney to a stranger. She thought this would be the crowning point of her 50th year celebration. When she found MatchingDonors.com in May 2009, she knew her vision would become a reality.

Peggy searched the Internet and found out about MatchingDonors.com; the worlds most successful website finding altruistic organ donors for people needing organ transplants. While people wait 7 to 10 years on the governments organ transplant waiting list for a deceased donor, many people get their organ transplant within six months of being on MatchingDonors.com from living altruistic donors.

Like many people in their position, Peggy and her daughter took their destiny in their own hands and signed up on MatchingDonors.com (www.matchingdonors.com).

Kim wrote on her mothers MatchingDonors.com profile: My mother is one of a kind. As a modest person, she has done her best to describe her life accomplishments below. What she is too humble to tell you is that she is a truly selfless inspiration to all who meet her. She is a source of comfort to those in need, a source of light to those struggling, and a source of unconditional love to her family and friends. She offers a rare acceptance of others, despite their flaws, that inspires me to be a better person. While her health is deteriorating, her heart grows as she continues to give of herself with a positive outlook and great enthusiasm. Please consider being her donor, as your generous act will go far beyond extending her quality of life, to enhance the lives of all who come into contact with her. Kim saw her mothers declining.

Within three weeks of being on MatchingDonors.com Peggy found what she hoped for -her perfect biological match- Claire Husted, and Claire found what she wanted a way to give life to a stranger. And, now because of a complete stranger that Peggy met through MatchingDonors.com she will be receiving her lifesaving kidney transplant on Wednesday, February 9, 2011, at the University of Colorado Transplant Center, and Claire will be getting her 50th birthday wish of giving life.

This will be the 138th transplant surgery from a patient and altruistic donor that found each other on MatchingDonors.com.

MatchingDonors.com was launched in January of 2004 as an Internet service based in Massachusetts. Patients on transplant lists put their profiles on the website, and potential donors browse the site for a life they want to help save. Donors are not compensated, since it is against the law to have any financial benefit from organ donation.

Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, one of the website founders, said Patients are asked to pay a membership fee, but there is a sliding scale if they can't afford it. Many praise MatchingDonors.com as a creative, entrepreneurial response to this deadly disparity, and 100% of the money paid for patient memberships is applied to running the site. Since the inception of MatchingDonors.com, directed living organ donations have increased to historic numbers. MatchingDonors.com is now the largest living donor database in the country.

We believe that if more people were better educated on the ability to be a live organ donor, and we add in the personal communication between potential organ donors and patients needing an organ, the number of donors will increase and so will the probability of a patient receiving their much needed organ. We already have over 8,676 potential donors on our site waiting to find patients needing organs, said Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, MatchingDonors.com Medical Director. MatchingDonors.com is the most comprehensive searching system available. Other organizations concentrate mainly on the passive anonymous portion of finding organ donors - leaving little or no communication between patients and potential donors.

Over the past six years MatchingDonors.com has made historic strides in saving the lives of people needing organ transplants, and increasing living organ donation in the United States. For the work we do at MatchingDonors.com we have won many awards and commendations from Congress and The President of The United States, but we do not currently receive any funds from government. MatchingDonors.com accomplishments include:

1. MatchingDonors.com is now the largest living donor database in the United States, with over 9,034 potential donors registered on the website. 2. MatchingDonors.com is also now the largest living donor paired exchange database in the United States, with over 1,930 potential paired exchange donors registered on the website. 3. MatchingDonors.com now has over 500 patients with active profiles. 4. MatchingDonors.com has an extremely high success rate - most patient members that have been on the site for at least 30 days have been offered an organ by a potential donor. 5. At least 40 of our patient members have upcoming surgery dates with their donors found on MatchingDonors.com. 6. MatchingDonors.com can get over 1.5 million visits in a month. 7. New patients and potential donors sign up almost daily. 8. MatchingDonors.com is recommended and used by many doctors across the United States, including some of the most prestigious transplant surgeons and centers.

As of February 1, 2011, there are 110,208 patients waiting for an organ transplant in the United States. Yet, in from January to October in 2010, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, www.UNOS.org a non-profit organization contracted with the US Department of Health, there were only 23,956 organ transplants performed in the United States with only 12,091 deceased donors. Every day, 19 people die while waiting on this list for a transplant of a vital organ, such as a heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, or lung. There are over 250 other people dying each day needing organ transplants who are not on this list.Currently, patients waiting for an organ donation are placed on a national waiting list through the United Network for Organ Sharing. A computer system matches patients to donor organs according to objective criteria such as blood and tissue type, immune status, medical urgency and time spent on the waiting list. This ranking system determines which patients are offered available organs. This process is extremely important in anyones organ search, but now MatchingDonors.com offers a way to enhance the search with a more active approach.

MatchingDonors.com main objective is to search the world to find potential live donors for people in need of organ transplants. Patient members of MatchingDonors.com provide a personal biography as well as pictures of their choice to display on the website, which will create an interest in them and their life story. When patients in need of an organ transplant place themselves into MatchingDonors.com database, their information will be promoted on the website. MatchingDonors.com advertises and promotes its Web site in many different ways through extensive public relations networking to increase potential donors viewing the site.

The personal connection MatchingDonors.com provides is key to finding a potential live donor. According to the National Kidney Foundation, "Nearly one out of four (23.4%) of 1000 people queried told pollsters that they would be "likely" to consider donating a kidney or a portion of their liver or lung to help save the life of someone they did not know." Many people feel more comfortable considering offering a live donation to someone they may have a connection to or a common bond. When patients provide their biography and open up personally, the potential for live donors to respond is increased. To help educate people about the option of live organ donation, MatchingDonors.com Web site provides extensive information regarding the safety and types of donations available.

MatchingDonors.com Medical Director, Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, is available for interviews for print, radio and television before and after the surgery. Please contact Doctor Lowney at 781-821-2204 to set up interviews. An NPR radio interview, ABC News NightLine Story, and New England Journal of Medicine Articles about MatchingDonors.com can be found at www.MatchingDonors.com.

Both the patient and donor can be interviewed; their contact information can be obtained by calling MatchingDonors.com at 781-821-2204. Many of our patients and donors are willing to speak with the press. Contact information about our patients and donors may be obtained by calling MatchingDonors.com at 781-821-2204. MatchingDonors.com is not an organ donor waiting list, and is not associated with any organ donor organization. It is a nonprofit venue where patients and potential donors can communicate and hopefully expedite a live donor agreeing to give a much-needed organ. MatchingDonors.com gives patients and potential donors the important communication tools to correspond with each other, but once the contact between the parties has been made, the road to transplant surgery is their own.

Based in Canton, Massachusetts, MatchingDonors.com is a nonprofit corporation with people based throughout the United States. Anyone interested in donating money to support MatchingDonors.com services can do so by calling MatchingDonors.com at 781-821-2204.

More information about the company is available at its corporate Web site, http://www.MatchingDonors.com.