Who can I donate to?

You can donate a kidney to a member of your family, a friend or, if you agree, your kidney will be used in the Kidney Exchange programme.

Donating to someone you know, like a family member or a friend, is called ‘directed’ donation. This is because you ‘direct’ that your kidney goes to a particular recipient. 

Donating to someone you don’t know is called ‘non-directed’ donation. In this case, you cannot say who receives your kidney. The kidney is given to the highest placed person on the kidney transplant waiting list.