It's been ten years since I started thinking about donating my kidney, and eight years since I actually donated. I am still here, healthy as ever, not regretting for a minute that I helped someone.
In case you are wondering, I never did hear from anyone about the donation, so I am in the dark about who it was. I hope they are still alive, and a piece of me is doing a job giving someone a better quality of life.
I recently read a great article about kidney donation, and I encourage you to read it. She captures the ambivalence of giving something, a big thing, but also knowing that in many ways we could give more.
Through this pandemic, many people have had surgeries to receive kidneys postponed, and I wonder whether donations are down because people are afraid of having an operation during a pandemic. But the needs don't go away, and people die because they are on a waiting list for a kidney.