COMMUNITY /// HEALTH /// EDUCATION
LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCES
Join the Living Donor Games!
In a 2023 survey, 73% of respondents felt that donating a kidney would negatively affect their health. The Donor Games refutes this widely held misconception by showcasing the impressive health and fitness of kidney and liver donors from around the country.
With over 90,000 Americans waiting for a kidney, your donation can be the difference between life and death, offering a chance at a longer, healthier life for the recipient. Living kidney donation is a low-risk procedure, and 95% of donors say they would do it again because the emotional reward of saving a life is unparalleled. Donors often experience an enhanced sense of well-being, with improved quality of life and psychosocial health. Most healthy people can donate and if you qualify, you’ll be giving the ultimate gift: a life-saving kidney with lasting impact.
Programs
Kidney Donor Athletes is proud to create spaces, events, and opportunities that support and celebrate living kidney donors.
Our Champions program began in 2019 after the impact of donor and aspiring donor meetings showed to be deeply meaningful.
The First Event Back program was an aspirational idea formed in KDA’s first Board of Directors in 2020 and came into existence in late 2023. It’s our way of supporting you in your first event back after donation!
“Something that’s important to all of us is to normalize kidney donation. We’re not heroes, we’re normal people. We lead normal lives.” ~ Patty Graham, living donor
Events
We host events to demonstrate that living organ donors can accomplish any physical challenge that could be achieved by a person with two kidneys. We climb mountains and volcanoes, and trek through the Grand Canyon as a group. We also host movie screenings, have KDA Family Gatherings, and participate in the Donor Games. We create experiences for all kinds of living donors and would love for you to participate!
Facebook Posts
🎉 Happy Birthday, Chris Sullivan! 🎉
Today, we are celebrating our incredible Board Chair, Chris! Your leadership, vision, and unwavering dedication have truly transformed Kidney Donor Athletes. Because of you, our community continues to grow, our mission reaches more people, and the impact we are making for living donors and transplant recipients becomes stronger every single day.
Thank you for the time, heart, and passion you pour into this organization. You inspire all of us to keep pushing boundaries, advocating for organ donation, and showing the world what is possible after donation.
We hope you have an amazing birthday filled with celebration, gratitude, and maybe even a little adventure. Here’s to another year of changing lives and chasing dreams! 💚
We are officially ONE WEEK away from the trip of a lifetime. 🌍⛰️
15 Kidney Donor Athletes climbers are just one week away from leaving for Africa to take on Mt. Kilimanjaro and advocate for living organ donation. Each person on this team is climbing for something bigger than themselves: to raise awareness and show the world what is possible after donation.
In this video, our climbers are sharing why they’re taking on this challenge and the personal stories behind their journey. These are the real faces and voices of our mission, and we could not be more proud of this team.
Huge shoutout to our amazing Board Member, Steve Mura, for his incredible editing skills and for helping bring this video to life. We’re so grateful for your talent and your heart for this community! 🙌
We hope their stories inspire you. Please watch, like, share, and comment to help us spread the message about living organ donation. You never know who might be encouraged to take that next step. 💚
#KidneyDonorAthletes #OneKidneyClimb #SecondChances #LivingDonation #Kilimanjaro2026
In ten days our Kili climbers begin their journey up Mount Kilimanjaro in beautiful Tanzania! 🇹🇿
While it is a challenging experience, the amazing team from @embark.exploration.co do their best to keep spirits high!
Here we are a fun musical dance break during the first full day of hiking back in our inaugural One Kidney Climb in 2022. 🥾 🎶 🕺
We are excited to cheer our climbers along from afar and we hope you are too!
Let’s give them some words of encouragement as they fine tune their preparations for this life changing experience!
#kidneydonorathlete #kilimanjaro #onekidneyclimb #kidneydonor #tanzania
Frequently asked questions
Do you still have questions after reading through our home page? We’ve got you covered! Check out our FAQ to read answers to the most common questions we receive. If you still have questions after that, you can reach out through our Contact page.
Get Involved
We hope that by visiting our website, you’re feeling inspired! Want to take it further by getting more involved through sharing your story, attending an event, serving on a committee, or even applying to our Board of Directors?
I love being a part of KDA because it connects me with a community of like-minded people who truly understand my journey. Being surrounded by other athletes inspires me every day, and I’m passionate about helping spread awareness to even more people around the world.
Meet the Donor Athletes
Explore more than 150 stories of kidney donor athletes!
Share your Story
Get involved with KDA by sharing your donation story!
Join a One Kidney Club
Build community with other living donors in your area.
Being a part of the KDA community gave me the opportunity to show that a person of color and living kidney donor, while being a plus-sized athlete, can still live a healthy, athletic lifestyle. It is very important to display this, and it is one of the reasons why I started Multicultural Miracle Donor Foundation, to advocate and bring awareness.
“The KDA community is a mash-up of every kind of athlete out there, and we’re all here to rally around you. It makes no difference if you walk three times a week around the neighborhood, or if you’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. We’re all just people. People who have saved lives and want to support others who are also passionate about saving lives and making the world a better place.” ~ Tracey Hulick, Founder