34 | DECEMBER 26 • 2024 
J
N

A

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

