Posting on social media asking for donor

[Staygood]

Hi

I am planning to use social media, Facebook. To post and ask for kidney donor from friends and family.

Does anyone have a good template of a post which can be used?

Thanks.

[Transplant314]

With help I created an advertisement. I had a picture of my family with a headline save our father. I was a little weirded out about that so I created another ad with a picture of myself and our dog which we adopted from a shelter. The headline was my owner saved me please save him. Create something that gives people a sense of who you are. There are cases of people wearing t shirts saying I need a kidney or putting flyers on cars in a shopping center.

My wife has a much greater social network than I but once you put the request out there people will share it.

At first I was very depressed and thought I will never find a donor and then I began to believe that I could find a donor I figured it would take 2-4 years to find a donor but my donor came through after six months. We only heard from people who were turned down due to health reasons. My team would not share who or how many people were being tested because of privacy issues.

You will find a donor eventually but there will be many ups and downs and it can be an emotional roller coaster but have faith all you need is one kidney and many more people are willing to donate these days.

[Staygood in reply to Transplant314]

Thanks for providing such detailed ideas!

If you don't mind, can I ask you further details?

When you created the ad with the picture of your family and yourself, did the ad link to another page? Another words, what I am trying to figure out, is do I need to create some web page which people would fill out their information?

I am sorry I am asking for these details. I am new with this stuff and don't really know how best to do this?

Do I just post on my social and ask people to share? How will a potential donor get in touch with me? All these questions i have.. I am so scared....

[Transplant314 in reply to Staygood]

No problem the whole process is overwhelming. I did not link it to another site although you could. I gave the email address for the my transplant team. I believe they can give you an email address to use. If people are interested they will reach out and the team can provide answers about being a donor and the process you may not be able to answer.

People may want information and decide not to be tested and they will not want you to know. Finally, there are some nutty people who will contact you and have no interest but want to talk.

Your transplant team can weed out the serious and eligible candidates for you. Feel free to reach out with any questions.

[Staygood in reply to Transplant314]

Thanks for the reply! Really helpful. One thing I am considering is doing it more anonymously meaning having a friend or family member post but not disclose my name. Not sure if that is a good or bad idea.

So from what you are mentioning, seems just posting a message on Facebook with an email address who to contact is easiest way?

[hope1419]

I did a couple of things. First I asked family. Then I reached out to my church, but NOW I think the add was too short, and there were too many steps to reach my information. I know now that a lot of donnors prefer to be unknown until they are absolutely sure that they are a match. So, a friend suggested to be interviewed for an article with the local newspaper. I though of it for a while, I read some more at the UNOS page transplantliving.org/kidney... and I wrote my story. I found my kidney coach, and we contacted the news paper. One of the reported read my story, and we decided to put a family spin to the story since my daughter was my coach, and I want my transplant to see her grow. The article was longer than an add, and this time, I included my transplant center information along with my clinical record number. This way people who would be curious or interested would just be able to call without feeling preassure. After having been unsuccessful with the add, and having had a couple of people verbally offer to donate, but later not follow through, I was carefully hopeful, but already thinking of what to do next. The article was published in September, I heard immediately from a couple of people telling me someone was going to call, but I was not going to be excited until it happened. Then, a month later one of those people called me again, and told me she was a match, but there was another possible donnor who was a better match. At that point, I raised my hope. This weekend, I heard from that person who is a better match. It is someone I have met at work, but read the article. This person did not want to raise my hope until it was for sure we are a match. I have not had the transplant, yet, but now I am really hopeful. The power of social media is amazing. Friends and I shared, and re shared the article a lot of times. It also attracted people who wanted to take advantage of the situation, and you have to be careful with that. Also, my last word of advise, is taken from UNOS, move from just asking for a kidney to sharing your story, and letting people know what took you here and why you want to keep living... It makes a world of difference. It is hard, because you put yourself out there, but tell your story, believe in God, and provide the information possible donors need to know.

[horsie63 in reply to hope1419]

I'd be willing to do this but none of my family lives close and since I live in a very rural area I don't have a lot of friends nearby either. Would this work well with total strangers? Tulsa is the closest big town and where the transplant center is and is a 2 hour drive.