34 | DECEMBER 26 • 2024
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licia Chandler of
Birmingham donated a
kidney to a high school
friend. They hadn’t seen each
other in decades, but when she
saw her friend’s post on Facebook,
Chandler decided to take action.
It was 2018, and she felt in her gut
she’d be a match. “You could go in
anonymously, and she was posted
through Michigan Medicine. You
give them the name of the person
and they drew a little bit of blood
to see if you were a match,” she
recalls.
By December of that year, she
says, the two sat down to talk
about it. “I waited until I got
initial clearance [from University
of Michigan] then I reached out
to her, we met at Starbucks,”
she recalls. “We talked about
everything, caught up on 20 years.”

In January 2020, she donated.
From kidney to liver to tissue
donation, some 6,500 living
donation transplants happen
annually, according to the
government’s Health Resources &
Services Administration. And as
individuals and families pursue
potential matches for themselves
and their loved ones, some turn to
Facebook or Instagram, including
Jewish community-based boards, to
get their messages out and extend
their networks.
It’s a great use of social media,
explains Chandler, whose
grandfather passed away from the
same kidney disease. “Often people
don’t share when they’re going
through troubles or sickness, some
people just like to portray all the
good stuff on Facebook,” she says.
“But I do think for folks going

through illness and things like
that, it can be a source to connect
with other people who have similar
experiences — in this case, it can
really be a way to find someone to
help save a life, which I view as a
very beautiful thing.”
Most people have Facebook
friends they’re in touch with the
way she and her high school friend
were — friends they’ve got good
memories of and fond feelings for
but maybe don’t fit into each other’s
lives on a daily basis anymore
— she explains. “You still hope
them well,” she says. “And there’s
someone I had all these positive
feelings about, and when I saw
there was something she needed, I
just viewed this as an opportunity
to do some good in the world.”
Having had a good and positive
experience, Chandler says when she
sees people posting about kidney
donors in the Facebook group
Jewish Moms of Metro Detroit or
elsewhere, she tries to jump in and
offer herself as a resource.
“It can be obviously a little
overwhelming, the process of
voluntarily putting yourself
through surgery and voluntarily
giving up an organ, so I’m always
happy to talk to people about it,”
she said.
Kidney donation education

online has been so successful
they’ve added an interactive
online seminar about how to use
social media tools in the search
process, says Joyce
Williams, spokesperson
for the National
Kidney Foundation of
Michigan. It was added
to the National Kidney
Foundation’s toolbox
when they discovered
people were using social media to
widen their networks and offers
language and tips.
“It’s actually encouraged
because it’s a way to get to a bigger
network,” says Williams, citing that
over 2,000 people are waiting for a
kidney donor and that there’s also a
three-to-five-year timeline.
“Very often you may not have
an eligible donor within your close
circle of family and friends, but if
you put the word out, they’re going
to have family and friends that they
can ask.”
Saving a life is the highest value
in Judaism, says Rabbi
Shalom Kantor of
Congregation B’nai
Moshe, who spoke
about the importance
of organ donation on
Yom Kippur. “What
that means and how

Some turned to social media to find a match.

The Search for
Living Donors

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

HEALTH
Jillian Berger
and her dad,
Marty Gold

Alicia Chandler and her
daughter, Morgan Chandler,
hiking the Manistee River Trail.

Joyce
Williams

Rabbi
Shalom
Kantor