Social media appeals

The process is managed via the living donor transplant team. Discussion with the recipient will be started at an early stage by the transplant team, but initial tests and information sharing need to take place first. Contacting recipients or their family directly at an early stage can raise unrealistic expectations for the potential recipient, before important aspects of the process are considered.

There is a process to select the most suitable potential donor. If you are not selected as a potential donor for the person who made the appeal, we would encourage you to consider if you might donate to someone else on the waiting list instead.

Many people may contact the team to enquire, then may not wish to, or may not be able to, progress due to many different factors. It is important to share your full medical and mental health history at an early stage with the medical teams. We also encourage you to speak to your family and support networks early on, as often there can be conflicting views about whether you should become a donor or not.

The assessment process for donating a kidney usually takes around 3 months for kidney donors. It can, in some situations, take longer. Living donation involves major surgery and some donors are expected to take up to 12 weeks off work to recover depending on the surgery undertaken and on their work and lifestyle.

If you are responding to a social media appeal, please be aware that it is possible that you may never meet the recipient. This is assessed on a case-by-case basis depending on the complexity of the situation.

Living donation is a gift, freely given. It is illegal to benefit financially in the United Kingdom from donating an organ and donors should not receive any kind of financial or material reward before or after donation. Claims can, however, be submitted for reasonable expenses and loss of earnings. This will be discussed as part of the assessment process.