WaitList Zero was founded by two living kidney donors to increase living kidney donation. Co-founder Thomas Kelly’s story appeared online in the Washington Post. The organization’s other co-founder, Josh Morrison, donated three years ago to John Mendes, a man he didn’t know before giving. Since then, the two have become close friends. That's why we need you to ask HRSA to support living kidney donation and make more stories like Josh and John's possible.

Before receiving a transplant, John was on dialysis for eight hard years. The first time John was dialyzed, the treatment malfunctioned and was so painful he thought he’d rather die than ever go back. Until he received a working kidney, the treatments left him exhausted and barely able to leave the house.

John was young, in good health besides his kidney failure, and a prime candidate for transplantation, but he never asked anyone to donate: he worried that he’d be a burden and that his friends would think transplant surgery was very dangerous (it’s not) or would make their lives shorter (it doesn’t). His unspoken need for a transplant colored all of his relationships during this difficult period. As he puts it, “It was like a dead body in the room every time one of my friends came over. Both of us knew it was there, but neither of us would talk about it. It was always like: he wasn’t offering, and I wasn’t asking.”

John and kidney failure patients everywhere deserve better. Policies exist that can educate patients and their families about transplantation and to support donors for the financial costs of donation (like their lost wages after surgery) to make it easier for patients to ask for a transplant and easier for donors to give.

Unfortunately, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the federal agency responsible for organ donation, does not yet support policies to increase living kidney donation – policies to help patients like John. HRSA deserves credit for the great work they've done to increase deceased donation, but we're calling on them to support living donation as well.

HRSA has agreed to meet with our coalition of patient and donor groups to discuss their stance. We need your support to help them rethink their position and make the right decision. Please sign this petition to ask HRSA to support policies to increase living kidney donation.