Dear Friends,

This letter is about my dear friend Alice. It’s her story, and it’s also a request for help for a matching kidney
donation. I know not everyone can offer what we need, but please do me and my friend the kindness of reading
to the end before deciding. By helping Alice, you may also be able to help another child or adult who is in the
same situation.

Alice, pictured here with her brother’s new babies, is a wonderful person. She has worked for the public good
for 23 years. Her work focuses on toxic waste cleanup, improving the environment and the health of
communities around the country. She is also a devoted friend to many and beloved by her family who have
already donated two kidneys to help her live; but there are no further matches in her family, so I am reaching
out to you to see if you can help, or if you can put her in touch with someone else who can help, or who needs
a kidney, but can’t find a match.

Here’s her story: Alice has suffered kidney failure nearly all her life, stemming from a misdiagnosed and
mistreated case of strep throat at age seven, which severely damaged her kidneys. From that point forward, her
kidneys declined until Alice was 18 when her mother was able to donate a kidney, which gave Alice 16 years
of good health but ultimately wore out. A second kidney transplant from her brother has given her the last 17
years. (Her mother, at 83, and brother, at 56, are both in excellent health!)

Because of these gifts of life, Alice has made it her life’s work to help others. She has made a career of
improving our environment, and she serves on a board to counsel and educate other kidney patients so they
understand their treatment options. Alice has
also lived the healthiest lifestyle possible in
hopes of prolonging her own life.

Unfortunately, her current kidney is nearing

failure. While she lives on a very low and
ever-diminishing percent of kidney function,
Alice is on a five-year transplant wait list for
an organ from a recently-deceased
person. Her current kidney will not last
those five years. Without a transplant, she
will turn to dialysis, which is only 10% as
effective as a functioning kidney, leaving
many side-effects. Consequently, death rates
on dialysis are very high – over 20 per cent
of patients on dialysis in the U.S. die each
year.

It’s also very painful and poses a very high

risk of infection. Put simply: Alice needs a new kidney, and we hope you will consider being tested to be a
donor.

I know this is a big request. But I make it on behalf of someone who devotes every day of her life to making a
difference in the world.

If you can help, please do. If you know anyone who might, please forward this on. Forwarding this to your
family, friends, work, school, congregation, or any other communities you belong to would be most gratefully
appreciated. Because she has had two prior transplants and transfusions, Alice is highly sensitized to other
people and will have a hard time finding a donor who is a good match. Hopefully, many people will
volunteer to be tested and she may find a donor among them. Alice needs a kidney from a donor with type B
or type O blood. And friends of Alice are willing to donate to another in a paired exchange, if we can find a
donor whose antibody/blood and tissue type match hers. In this way, you could help more people than Alice.

Answers to frequently asked questions about testing and donating are below. If you need any more
information, or would like to be tested, please call the hotline set up for Alice at (301) 717-1755. You will be
put in touch with Living Donor Coordinator at Alice’s transplant center, who will be able to speak to you
confidentially and answer any questions.

Thank you so much!

Information About Donating

The initial testing for donation is simple; it usually requires some interviews and a blood test. Costs are
covered by Alice’s insurance. The surgery for removing a donated kidney is now laparoscopic, and causes
little scarring. It does not require a lengthy hospital stay and the costs of donation are covered. You don’t
need to be a perfect match to donate a kidney to Alice. Technology, and advances in matching donors and
recipients, now permit any healthy person to donate. And one kidney donation can generate multiple others,
potentially helping many people! http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2009/03_11a_09.html.

The long term implications of donation were recently the subject of an article in the New England Journal of
Medicine which concluded that survival and the risk of kidney failure in carefully screened kidney donors
appear to be similar to those in the general population. Most donors who have normal kidney function and “an
excellent quality of life.” http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/360/5/459.

A 2007 article in the New York Times noted that donation is a personally fulfilling experience. In a review of
published surveys on donor attitudes by Mary Amanda Dew, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center, about 95 percent of donors say they would do it again. Most experience a boost in self-worth
and enjoy feelings of deep purpose: "People who actually do become donors, usually regard it as a supremely
gratifying experience; they were given a blessed opportunity to save a life." Sally Satel, Desperately Seeking a
Kidney, N.Y. Times, Dec. 16, 2007.

The following web sites provide information about the process of donation, and the benefits of donation to the
donors, as well as to the recipients:

FAQs about living donation: http://www.umm.edu/transplant/kidney/qanda.htm.

Living donors network: http://www.livingdonorsonline.org/.

United Network for Organ Sharing (federal clearing house for non-living donation and source of other useful
information): http://www.unos.org/.

Thank you again for considering getting tested!