Billboard Plea Spurs Living Donor, National Kidney Registry Voucher Fast Tracks Wait Listed Kidney Patient

Billboard Campaign Leads To Paired kidney Donation, Voucher Moves Recipient Up Waiting List

USA: A national donor search that included billboards and social outreach culminated this spring in a paired kidney transplantation that restored kidney function for Miami University alum Maria Almeida. A living donor who saw Almeida’s public campaign donated through the National kidney Registry in February to a patient in Colorado, triggering a voucher that elevated Almeida’s priority in a paired exchange and produced the transplant three weeks ago.

Almeida, who had one kidney removed at age nine and whose function had fallen to roughly 9 percent, launched a high-profile search by March 2025 after conventional options stalled. Her outreach included a full‑blown billboard campaign and social media pushes aimed at finding a compatible living donor or a pathway through paired exchange. The donor, identified in outreach as Maurisa from Jacksonville, Arkansas, responded to that call and completed donation to another recipient, generating the voucher that benefited Almeida.

The National kidney Registry’s paired exchange and voucher programs allow donors to help an incompatible recipient by donating to a matched person elsewhere, then assigning priority to their intended beneficiary. NKR marketing director Samantha Hill says the registry’s site catalogs many examples of creative donor recruitment and exchange outcomes like this one, as patients and donors pursue alternative paths to transplantation.

The result was dramatic: Almeida’s kidney function reportedly rose from about 9 percent to roughly 90 percent within weeks of the transplantation, and she says she feels back to near full health. The case highlights how living donation, paired exchanges and public campaigns are increasingly reshaping access to kidney transplantation.

Video originally published on 2026-04-29 17:54:03