What is living kidney donation?

Living kidney donation information and learning resources

Being informed is a vital process in becoming a living kidney donor. This learning resource centre provides information about how living donation works, educational programs that help educate donors and transplant candidates, stories that share lived experience of people who have donated a kidney or received a transplant, and information about eligibility to donate, kidney paired donation and how to contact a local transplant centre to get started.

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Directed donation

This type of donation occurs when a potential donor knows a transplant candidate and is a match to that person. Directed donors can be biologically related to the transplant candidate (for example, parents, children, brothers and sisters, grandparents) or unrelated (for example, spouse, friend, co-worker).

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Non-directed anonymous donation (NDAD)

This type of donation occurs when a person offers to donate a kidney that could go to anyone they match who needs a kidney transplant. A donation like this can help one transplant candidate if the kidney is given directly to someone on the waitlist. Alternatively, this type of donation might help several people through the Kidney Paired Donation program. In this program, a kidney donation from one NDAD can kick-start a chain of donor exchanges.

How do I get started?

If you know a person who is waiting for a kidney transplant, you can talk to them. Or, you can contact a living donation program in your province. If you would like to become a non-directed anonymous donor a living donation program in your province can give you more information.

Contact information for the living donation programs can be found below:

 

Alberta

The Living Donor Services Program – Edmonton

Phone: 780-407-8698 | Toll free: 1-866-253-6833

Email: livingdonors@ahs.ca

 

Southern Alberta Transplant Program – Calgary

Phone: 403-944-4635

British Columbia

St. Paul’s Hospital – Vancouver
Tel: 604-806-9027 | Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

 

Vancouver General Hospital

Phone: 604-875-5182

Email: kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

 

BC Children's Hospital

Phone: 604-875-2272 | Toll-free: 1-888-300-3088 ext. 2272

Manitoba

New Brunswick

Newfoundland and Labrador

Eastern Health – Waterford Hospital – St. John’s

Phone: 709-777-3601

 

Western Health – Western Memorial Regional Hospital – Corner Brook

Phone: 709-637-5000 ext. 5396

Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

Cape Breton Regional Hospital – Sydney

Phone: 902-567-8067

 

Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre – Halifax

Toll-free: 1-888-362-8555

Phone: 902-473-5501

 

Queen Elizabeth Hospital - Charlottetown

Phone: 902-473-5501

Ontario

University Health Network – Toronto General Hospital

Phone: 416-340-4800 ext. 4848

 

St. Michael’s Hospital – Toronto

Phone: 416-867-3676

Email: LiveDonorTeam@smh.ca

 

Hospital for Sick Children – Toronto

*Please contact the team at University Health Network – Toronto General to be evaluated as a living donor on behalf of a child at Hospital for Sick Kids.

 

London Health Sciences Centre

Phone: 519-663-3552

 

St. Joseph’s Health Care – Hamilton

Phone: 905-522-1155 ext. 33780

 

The Ottawa Hospital – Riverside Campus

Phone: 613-738-8400 ext. 82778

Quebec

Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal

Phone: 514-890-8000 ext. 30859

 

L’Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont

Phone: 514-252-3400 ext. 1275

 

Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal - Sainte-Justine

Phone: 514-345-4931

 

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec - Laval University

Phone: 418-525-4444 ext. 15262

 

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke

Phone: 819-346-1110 ext. 14129

 

McGill University Health Centre

Phone: 514-934-1934 ext. 36003

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan Transplant Program – Regina

Phone: 306-766-6477

 

Saskatchewan Transplant Program - Saskatoon

Phone: 306-655-5054