#21. In the news - November 2011

Today I read an article on the front page of the Globe and Mail about a woman who was an undesignated donor. So being an undesignated donor is getting some press after all! It talked about how she registered with the Canadian Blood Services, in something called the Living Donor Paired Exchange Program. If you need a kidney, and your friend or family member would like to donate, but is incompatible, you get put in a registry. They eventually find pairs of people who, although incompatible to the person they know, are compatible to another pair. Sometimes it’s a group of six or eight people who all get involved in a transplant. The existence of a new undesignated donor widens the pool of matches and  can sometimes help to make these matches fit, so your donation can allow a number of transplants to take place.