Finding Your Living Kidney Donor

Organ donation saves lives and restores health. A kidney transplant is not a cure, but it offers the best possible improvement to health and quality of life for many people living with kidney failure. The only other life-sustaining treatment available is dialysis, which artificially cleans the blood.  

The need for organs for transplantation is much greater than the available supply. Both kinds of organ donation combined still don’t meet the need for kidneys for transplantation. Wait times can vary from a few months to several years. Normally everyone has two kidneys, although you can live a healthy life with just one. Living donation takes place when a person freely decides to donate a kidney to someone who needs a transplant. This offers the person waiting for a transplant an alternative to dialysis or a deceased donor transplant. Donating a kidney is the most common type of living organ donation. A living kidney transplant is the most successful of all transplant procedures. 

This webinar will share the experiences of patients with kidney disease looking for a potential living donor, the challenges they face and how they overcome their challenges.  

This webinar will be offered in English and French with simultaneous translation available in your language of choice.  
 

April 29th at 1:30 EDT

 

WATCH WEBINAR
 

Alley Adams

Alley Adams is a seasoned corporate communications professional and Senior Manager of Communications, Brand and Reputation at McCarthy Tétrault. She is responsible for all external communications and media relations strategy and execution across the Firm, including crisis management, award recognition and executive communications.  

Before assuming her current position, Alley managed communications and digital strategy of Canada’s largest independent wealth management firm, Canaccord Genuity. In her role, she led the launch of an industry-first program that enabled financial advisors to connect with clients on social media ensuring full compliance with capital markets regulatory bodies.  

Adams has also held positions at the Toronto Stock Exchange, assisting financial service and technology companies with their investor relations programs and started her career at Smithcom, working with industry-leading companies on corporate affairs and crisis communications.  

A passionate advocate for type-one diabetes, kidney disease and organ donation, Alley dedicates much of her personal time to the University Health Network, Canada's largest research hospital, which comprises Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the Michener Institute for Education at UHN, the Multi-Care Kidney Clinic at Toronto General Hospital and the Kidney Foundation of Canada. 
 

Sean Delaney

Sean Delaney is Senior Advisor and Program Lead for Interprovincial Organ Sharing with Canadian Blood Services and has played a key role in the development and implementation of all of the Kidney Paired Donation, Highly Sensitized Kidney Program, and emerging heart and liver interprovincial sharing programs in Canada.  

He is a graduate of the University of Oregon, followed by the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine with a Masters in Public Health, specialized in Health Policy.  

His work in healthcare includes community-based rehabilitation, managing a reporting team for the former David Thompson Health Region in Red Deer, and as Manager of Province Wide Services funding for the Ministry of Health in Alberta. A 2-year secondment to the Canadian Council for Donation and Transplantation led to his work today with Canadian Blood Services, where he has been an administrator since 2008. 

Sean is also a lifelong kidney patient whose journey began with post-urethral valve obstruction as an infant, eventually leading to kidney transplants at the age of 27 and again at the age of 49.  Between those 2 transplants, Sean also did a combination of hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis while he searched for potential living donors.  He resides outside of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and has 2 daughters, a grandson, a brown retriever dog named Sedona, and 4 chickens.  
 

Dr. Rahul Mainra

Dr. Rahul Mainra is a Transplant Nephrologist working in the Division of Nephrology at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He completed his medical training and residency in Saskatoon followed by a Nephrology fellowship at Western University in London, Ontario. Following this, he spent a year in Sydney, Australia completing a transplant fellowship along with a Masters in Medicine at the University of Sydney Department of Clinical Epidemiology. He returned to Saskatoon in 2008 to join the Saskatchewan Transplant Program in his current role. Rahul is active in the undergraduate medical program at the University of Saskatchewan and is the director of UGME for the Department of Medicine. Nationally, he is chair of the Living Donor Working Group for the ODTC and the Kidney Transplant Advisory Committee for CBS. He is involved in various National collaborative research projects within the area of Kidney Transplantation. 
 

Chief Michael Recalma

Chief Michael Recalma was elected Chief of the Qualicum First Nations over 6 years ago. In his role as Chief, he is both the caretaker of his people and the culture of the Qualicum First Nations.  As Chief, he has an extremely busy job, and a passion and dedication for his work, so much so, that when he first felt unwell several years ago, he thought he had the flu and continued to focus on his responsibilities as Chief.   After a couple of weeks of not feeling any better, he made a visit to the local health care centre.  Diagnosed with extremely blood pressure, he was told to go immediately to the local hospital for further testing.   He would later find out he did not have the flu, but he was in renal failure and needed dialysis.  The Chief opted for peritoneal dialysis, which he has been doing now for almost 3 years from home. The Chief is also on the waitlist for a kidney transplant and is actively looking for a living kidney donor. After being diagnosed with kidney disease, the Chief has spent time reflecting and asking what he is to learn from this experience. Always willing to share some words of wisdom, and his story, the Chief continues his kidney journey, with hope and optimism that he will receive a new kidney someday soon.  

_{The Kidney Foundation, would like to thank our sponsors for making the 2021 Kidney Foundation Webinar Series possible.}