Web Enables Organ Donation, Good Deeds

Web Enables Organ Donation, Good Deeds

June 13, 2009 08:00 AM
by Lindsey Chapman

The Web’s power to draw complete strangers together to participate in acts of kindness is highlighted by a Web site connecting organ donors with those in need.
Tackling Health Problems Together
Soon, Anthony Cottman will meet the woman who is about to become a very real part of him.

Cottman, who suffers from anemia problems and receives dialysis treatments three days a week, needs a kidney transplant, according to the New York Daily News.

Nancy Murrell, a woman he has so far only met through text messages, e-mails and phone calls, plans to donate a kidney to him. “She is giving it to me for no other reason than I need it,” Cottman told the paper.

Murrell learned about this kidney donation opportunity through Chaya Lipschutz, another woman who donated a kidney and then created a Web site, Kidney Donor & Kidney Matchmaker, to help other donors and recipients meet.

Of her decision to help Cottman, Murrell said, “It’s for Anthony, and to make the world a better place, but it’s also just really, really interesting. It’s an adventure.”
For all the good the Web can do, it’s important to remain safe online, too. FindingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Social Networking http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides.topic__ss_categories_ss_technology_ss_Social-Networking.html can help you learn how.

David Turner had hoped the Web would be able to help him resolve a health issue, too, but instead he is using it to help someone else. Turner learned at age 25 that he had stage IV lymphoma.

A stem cell transplant was his best chance for survival, WTVD News explained, but without health insurance, David was going to have to find a way to raise the $500,000 he needed for the procedure himself. He started a Web site, RaiseForDave.nexo.com to draw attention to his cause.

Unfortunately, Turner also needed his cancer to be in remission to have the stem cell transplant. Even though it was for a time, the cancer came back, and he had no way of accessing the almost $50,000 that had been raised.

David changed his plan. His Web site became BigDavesBigGift.org, and he now hopes that the venture will be able to provide funding for one person a year who needs a transplant.

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/2009/June/Web-Enables-Organ-Donation--Good-Deeds.html