When Jenna was first wait listed in 2004, we were told "no strangers" were to be brought for evaluation to donate a kidney to her.
When she had her first transplant 7 years ago, the restriction from transplant hospital excluded finding a donor from Matching Donors, but other than that they were willing to look at each potential donor on a case by case basis, and her donor was someone we met online.
Now many hospitals are more open to evaluating donors from varying modes of contact, as long as they are not asking for payment or anything of value in exchange.
We have run Craigslist ads, which are not allowed on Craigslist, but most of the time they seem to look the other way if no one flags it.
Quite a few people have offered but few follow through.
Our friend Mark made a video about Jenna two years ago which we share on twitter, Google+ and facebook. It's gotten over 13,000 views on youtube, which resulted in a few offers, but no matching donor, it's here if you haven't seen it
http://youtu.be/D9ZuVJ_s80YWe have posted about Jenna on her kidney donor search facebook page - also have gotten some offers via facebook and one actually made it through all the testing until a CT scar revealed he had arteriosclerosis and could not donate.
Because Jenna has high antibodies she is tough to match, so I keep spreading the word, and hoping for the best.
Has anyone else been trying to find a donor using social media?
If you're on facebook and haven't already done so, would you please LIKE and share Jenna's page
www.facebook.com/wantedkidneydonor - it would be most appreciated.
If you want to make your own donor search page on facebook let me know and I can help.
I don't know what else to do. Thanks for reading.