Introduction to Kidney Donation
Christine Hernandez strikes up conversations with almost anyone she meets, making sure to hand out a business card with a QR code leading to information about how they could donate a kidney to her. Other times, she has shared her story on billboards visible from Chicago highways. Her family has worn T-shirts to get the word out and she’s also opened up to thousands of people through social media. Her husband even had a graphic emblazoned on the side of his car to find a donor. Despite her best efforts for years, Hernandez remains without a kidney donor.
The Waiting List
Across the country, more than 93,000 people — including Hernandez — are awaiting a kidney donor, according to data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. In Illinois, there’s an estimated 3,753 people waiting for a kidney donor. That can often mean dealing with the health effects of kidney disease — which could include debilitating dialysis — while also becoming a fierce advocate for yourself as you look for someone willing to give their kidney to a stranger.
Promoting Kidney Donation
The practice is so common that the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois created a program that coaches people on how to promote their case through social media or even in more visible ways like a billboard, says Monica Fox, the vice president of government relations and external affairs for the foundation. They also stress the importance of putting potential donors at ease about the transplant process. “There’s a lot of fear around it,” Fox says about organ donation. “When you think about a person who’s healthy and there’s nothing wrong with them, and they’re going to go have surgery just to help someone else out.”
Alison Toback, who donated a kidney to her childhood friend in 2024, outside the McGaw YMCA in Evanston before her regular swim. Toback, who swims three times a week and was training for a marathon, was able to pick up her active lifestyle after the surgery.
Donating a Kidney
When Alison Toback heard her childhood friend needed a kidney transplant, she got tested to see if she was a match. The Evanston resident decided to donate one of her kidneys even after finding out she wasn’t a match, undergoing the procedure last December in Chicago. The donation allowed her friend, who lives in the Seattle area, to be bumped up on the waiting list. Toback saw it as an opportunity to pay tribute to her late father, who worked as a nephrologist.
The Benefits of Living Donation
Getting a kidney transplant through a living donor raises the survival rate. For example, a person who receives a kidney transplant from someone who has died has a five-year survival rate of about 82%. While that five-year survival rate goes up to 92% if the organ is from a living donor, said Dr. Enrico Benedetti, a transplant surgeon at UI Health who is also Hernandez’s doctor.
Alison Toback, who donated a kidney to her childhood friend in December 2024, shows the laparoscopic scars from the surgery to remove one of her kidneys.
Recovery from Surgery
It’s one reason she has pushed for the passage of a congressional bill that would create a pilot to provide refundable tax credits to kidney donors. Toback has bounced back from the surgery and has resumed swimming and running. She hasn’t experienced any complications and the surgery left her with a minimal scar similar to one from a cesarean birth. “It was really just not a lot of pain; it was a little uncomfortable getting in and out of bed,” says the mother of two children. “But other than that, compared to having a baby, it was nothing.”
Challenges in Finding a Donor
When Hernandez was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2016 she had no symptoms. A nurse at the time, she had pushed doctors to test her after two of her brothers were diagnosed with kidney failure. The tests revealed she had already lost about 60% of kidney function and she had a rare form of kidney disease known as MUC1. Her health declined to the point that she was later no longer able to work as a nurse. In 2018, she started looking for a donor, but she was also diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent a double mastectomy, before continuing her quest for a donor.
<img class="Image" alt="Christine Hernandez speaks to a reporter in her kitchen, in River Grove, on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/451d778/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6000×4000+0+0/resize/840×560
