National Kidney Foundation of Kentucky Promotes END THE WAIT! Initiative to Local Community
There is currently over 750 people waiting for an organ in the state of Kentucky.
To promote the END THE WAIT! initiative, the National Kidney Foundation of Kentucky (NKFK) is partnering with the Louisville Lightning to spread awareness of organ donation. The Lightning is Louisville’s new professional indoor soccer team which offers high-quality, fast-paced indoor soccer with constant action and scoring. The NKFK will be signing guests up as organ donors at the January 22 and February 5 Lightning home games. They will also be hosting a NKFK Night during the February 19 home game against the 1790 Cincinnati Express.
The national transplant waiting list is now over 105,000, while 83,000 of those are waiting for a kidney. “Most of the people on this list will wait too long for an organ and too many will die waiting, “says John Davis, NKF CEO. “ We’ve decided to meet this core challenge head on and lead a broad-based initiative that will eliminate barriers to donation, institute best practices across the country, cover the cost of donation and increase the pool of living and deceased donors.”
The END THE WAIT! initiative is a virtual call-to-arms designed to put in place tested and proven actions relating to education, financial and medical practice. This initiative recommends a focus in four key areas, including:
- Improving outcomes of first transplants, therefore reducing the need for second transplants.
- Increasing deceased donation.
- Increasing the number of living donors.
- Improving the system of donation and transplantation throughout the U.S.
*Please visit www.nkfk.org or www.kidney.org for more information
Join us on January 22, February 5, and February 19 at Mockingbird Soccer Arena to cheer on the Lightning and help us to END THE WAIT! by signing up on the Kentucky organ donor registry (www.donatelifeky.org)
On February 5th, we’ll be setting up an Organ Donor Table for people to sign up on the Kentucky Organ Donor Registry and we will also be honoring Team KY at half time. There will be in-game giveaways to promote organ donation. On February 19th, it’ll be National Kidney Foundation of Kentucky Night (NKFK Night). We’ll have the Organ Donor Table, as well as NKFK giveaways (first 100 will receive a NKFK tote).
The National Kidney Foundation, Inc. (NKF) is the major voluntary health organization dedicated to preventing kidney disease, improving the health and well-being of individuals and families affected by kidney disease and increasing the availability of all organs for transplantation.
