Live Donor Project Mobilizes Urgent Drive To Match Living Kidney And Liver Donors With 100,000 Waiting Patients

Pittsburgh Nonprofit Launches Live Donor Project To Link kidney And liver Donors With Patients

USA: A Pittsburgh-based nonprofit is amplifying a grassroots push to connect live donors with people in need of transplantation, centered on free, easy-to-share web pages that let patients tell their stories. One such patient, Joseph Wolski, was diagnosed in January 2025 with GPA vasculitis after thinking he had the flu; the autoimmune attack damaged his lungs and kidneys and led to six weeks in the hospital, including three in intensive care. Though he recovered from the acute illness, his kidney is failing and he is now seeking a living donor transplant.

Wolski’s fiance, Shannon McNamera, has been a constant presence through the crisis and is now helping to spread the word about live donation. Organ transplantation specialists and patient advocates stress that a live kidney donor—or a person donating part of their liver—can often return to a normal life while giving recipients a lifesaving chance; matching donors can also trigger chains that lead to multiple transplants.

The Live Donor Project was co-founded by Christa Tivar, whose husband is a transplant surgeon, and by Daniel Greish, who himself donated a kidney to his father. The group provides free individualized pages to educate potential donors about the donation process, living donor evaluation, and how to safely pursue transplantation without cost to patients.

With roughly 1,300 people on transplant lists in the Pittsburgh region and about 100,000 waiting nationwide, organizers say the platform could increase live donor awareness and create tangible matches. More information is available at livedonorproject.org or via the project’s on-screen QR code.

Video originally published on 2026-04-30 18:35:49