Supporting those who give the gift of a kidney

Based at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), the Living Donor Centre will bring together a multidisciplinary team of nephrologists, surgeons, nurse coordinators and social workers to support living donors who are offering the amazing gift of a kidney transplant.

A living donor is someone who chooses to donate a kidney to another person, often a relative or close friend. Sometimes the recipient is not known to the donor – this is called non-directed or altruistic donation.

Associate Professor Peter Hughes, Lead Physician for Transplantation at the RMH says the centre will “streamline the assessment process for donors, reducing time and unnecessary appointments, and provide them with more dedicated care and support”.

The centre also aims to strengthen the long-term follow-up of living donors.

“While we encourage ongoing post-donation care, we currently lack comprehensive long-term health outcome data for many donors,” A/Prof Hughes says.

“Improving this will help us better understand the long-term safety of kidney donation and ensure the best possible care for our donors.”

By consolidating the pre-donation and post-donation process in one location, the centre will capture more data and insights from the lived experience of consumers around kidney donation.

 “We are designing the centre with a strong focus on the donor experience and will continue to incorporate feedback into every stage of donor care – from education and assessment through to post-operative care and long-term follow up,” A/Prof Hughes added.

The centre will also undertake co-designed research with patients to identify new ways to support donors after transplantation, including the recovery and return to work phase.

Since commencing operations in December, the clinic has seen a total of 42 donors via in-person or telehealth appointments, enrolled 3 donors in the paired kidney exchange and scheduled 3 live donation surgeries.

Rebecca Beard and her husband Stuart know just how vital this support can be when navigating the donation pathway.

Stuart, who lives with polycystic kidney disease, experienced a decline in kidney function last year, leaving him in need of a transplant. Selflessly, Rebecca volunteered to donate her kidney to her husband and in July 2025, the pair underwent transplant surgery.

Rebecca reflected that the support they received during the testing, surgery and post-donation care phases made their experience easier.

“I felt that I had very good support because I had a transplant coordinator, nurse and doctor looking after me. If I wanted to, I could ring them up and they would listen to what's going on or whatever problem I had,” she said.

In particular, Rebecca felt well-supported by the multidisciplinary care, including seeing a priest from the RMH Spiritual Care Services which helped both her body and mind feel best prepared for kidney donation.

The RMH Kidney Transplantation Service is the second-largest kidney transplant unit in Australia, performing more than 100 kidney transplants a year and having conducted the most living donor kidney transplants in Australia.

From 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, the RMH performed 141 kidney transplants.

Professor Karen Dwyer, Director of Nephrology at the RMH, hopes the centre will provide greater awareness about donation, as well as support for those who choose to take part.

“The Living Donor Centre at RMH will set the standard for Australia supporting donors from the moment they enquire, through the work-up, donation and the post-donation period,” she said.

“We anticipate that creating a Centre will increase peoples' awareness of living donation; streamlining the process will increase the ease of donation; and providing ongoing care will ensure that donors' health and wellbeing are prioritised.”

The Living Donor Centre has been funded through a generous donation to the RMH Foundation by a former patient, who was the beneficiary of a kidney transplant.