NKF hopes Ming Yi’s kidney gift encourages others to donate

We applaud Venerable Ming Yi for his kidney donation, an altruistic act of kindness, as a transplant is the optimal solution to kidney failure and the closest to a cure. It provides patients with the best chance of long-term survival.

The transplanted kidney can take on almost all the functions of the failed kidneys and usually begins to function right away, allowing the patient to lead a better quality of life with less restriction in terms of diet and time.

The National Kidney Foundation has been promoting kidney transplantation. Unfortunately, there is still a donor shortage. In 2013, there were 424 people on the waiting list for a transplant, but only 34 cadaveric and 34 live-donor transplants were carried out.

Many patients have waited beyond the average waiting time of nine years, and cadaveric donations alone will not have a significant impact on the waiting list.

We hope that more people will come forward to give others with kidney failure, especially loved ones, a new lease of life through living donations as Venerable Ming Yi did.

To encourage this, the NKF has a Kidney Live Donor Support Programme, in which needy donors are given financial assistance.

The funding covers the costs of annual health screenings and medical follow-ups, one-time reimbursement of hospitalisation and surgical insurance premiums, as well as insurance coverage for the Group Living Policy, for which we have doubled the sum insured to $200,000.

We will continue to look at ways to enhance coverage, so patients can be assured that costs will not be an obstacle in the donor’s long-term medical follow-up.

While kidney failure is irreversible, diabetes and hypertension, the two leading causes of kidney failure, can be prevented or controlled, if diagnosed and treated early.

Hence, besides providing dialysis, the NKF is committed to raising community awareness of kidney disease and prevention.

We encourage people to manage their health through simple efforts such as having a healthy diet of less sugar, salt and oil, as well as an active lifestyle with a good dose of exercise and regular health checks when appropriate.

For more information, visit our website (www.nkfs.org) or call 6299-0200.