Did you know that a friend or loved one can be a living donor? Most often, friends or family can donate a kidney, but unrelated complete stranger donors ('altruistic donor') are becoming increasingly a source of living donation. Living donors can also donate liver segments or a lobe from a lung though these are less frequent.

Living organ donation dates back to 1954, when a kidney from one twin was successfully transplanted into his identical brother. Today, the number of living organ donors is more than 5,700 per year. And one in four of these donors isn’t biologically related to the recipient.