Workplace Support That Changes Everything | 38

What if a simple HR policy could help save someone’s life? In this episode, Brooke Iarkowski, Transplant Community Program Manager at the American Society of Transplantation, shares how paid leave transforms the living donor journey from a financial gamble into a supported reality. Brooke brings over ten years of experience in the transplant and donation field and a deeply personal connection to the mission. Witnessing both her mother and brother receive kidney transplants inspired her commitment, and in October 2023, she became a non-directed living kidney donor herself. Her lived experience gives her a unique perspective on the patient, donor, and family caregiver journey.
We explore how Brooke leads national initiatives that center the patient and donor voice, including the Power2Save campaign and the Living Donor Circle of Excellence. She explains how the Circle of Excellence helps companies adopt clear, humane policies that provide eight to twelve weeks fully paid leave for donor evaluation, surgery, and recovery. Brooke highlights why the business case is strong: medical costs are billed to the recipient’s insurance, utilization rates are low, and company culture benefits are significant. Thoughtful HR policies remove the number one barrier to donation (lost wages) while signaling leadership support for employees who step up to save a life.
This conversation also addresses the mental and emotional aftermath of donation. Brooke speaks candidly about post-donation fatigue and a brief depressive period, and how being seen as a whole person made all the difference. Realistic expectations and proper support make donation safer and more sustainable for everyone.
If you have ever thought, “I would donate, but I cannot afford the time,” or if you are a leader looking for a high-impact, low-cost benefit that saves lives, this episode is for you. Learn how to bring the Circle of Excellence to your workplace, get practical steps for starting the HR conversation, and hear why thoughtful policies can turn goodwill into a kidney or liver that moves someone off the waitlist.

Links

Circle of Excellence

Power to Save

American Society of Transplantation (AST)

Donor Diaries Website
Donor Diaries on Facebook
GiftWorks Website
Connect with Laurie Lee

Transcript

Opening And Donor Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If AST didn't offer the 12 weeks, would I still have donated a kidney? Maybe. Would it have been later in life? Probably. That's the reality of the situation is that I'm a mom, I own a home, we have a lot of bills. For me to be able to take all of that time off and not worry about a paycheck is really the reason I was able to donate when I could be a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Welcome back to Donor Diaries, a podcast that explores the deeply human side of living donation and transplant with interviews with donors, recipients, and transplant professionals. These are interviews and stories that remind us what it means to be part of something so much bigger than ourselves. Today I'm joined by a transplant professional who's also a living kidney donor. Meet Brooke Larkowski. And you know I love when people who work in transplant also step forward to donate. And Brooke has actually spent her entire career in the field of transplant. Her donor story is actually still evolving, and Brooke is going to tell us about a fantastic program through the American Society of Transplantation that helps make it easier for people to become living donors. It's an important initiative, especially if you're a business owner yourself, you know business owners, you work in healthcare, or if you just care about removing barriers for donors, this is one you'll want to know about and support. Welcome, Brooke. Thank you so much for being on our podcast today. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Good. I'm so excited to have you as a guest. I've gotten to know you through email over the last few years. Um, and then finally got to meet you in person earlier this year. So, Brooke, you're not only a living donor, but you work in transplant for the American Society of Transplantation. Uh, people know it as the AST in the transplant world. Tell us about your introduction to the world of transplant and how did you end up working for the AST?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah, but that's a great question and it has a nice long background story. So, really, I got involved in all of this early on because of my mom's connection. Um, so when she was going through the process of being listed, I feel like it just shaped my entire career. So in college, I got an internship with a tissue bank. So I worked with cortical thickness of bones and things like that for tissue donation, which was a totally brand new world for me. And then from there, I went and I worked for an organ procurement organization for almost 10 years. So working with the donor families, doing education for high school and nursing students. It was easily one of the hardest jobs that ever and probably will ever have in my life, but it also prepared me so much for working in this field. And then the only reason I left the OPO world is really because I started having kids. And that world is so, so hard to predict. Um, and so my hours were really crazy, and I just wanted something a little bit more structured. And I just happened upon the job at the American Society of Transplantation, which I've now been at for four years.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

So you've been in transplant your whole life. Yes. Yeah. And I don't think I could ever do anything else at this point. And what was the connection with your mom and transplant? Weightlisted, you said.

Family Roots In PKD And Donation

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah. So my mom has polycystic kidney disease. It was something that we found out about, or at least I found out about when I was in middle school, early high school. We later found out that her mom had passed when she was much younger from a brain aneurysm, which was related to the polycystic kidney disease that she wasn't even aware that she had. And so my senior year of high school, she really started to decline. And then she was waitlisted my first year at college. And we were just really fortunate. I didn't realize how fortunate at the time, but we were so incredibly fortunate because my dad immediately volunteered to be her living donor. And everything was sort of picture perfect. That she never went on dialysis. She had an immediate connection. He was a match for her, which is also crazy as her spouse. They got to pick their date for their donation, like all these things that now being someone working in this field and chatting with other people going through this process, just very not natural. But they're 17 years out now. Wow. Um, yeah. So that was really sort of my Fourier into all of this. And it's been a journey for sure, but overall, you know, they're both doing really well.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

That's incredible. And I'm so glad that they're both doing well 17 years later. That's a long shelf life for a kidney.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

I know, I know, I know. I feel it's one of those things where like I know statistics. I know that like it's likely she will need another one, but right now everything's going strong. So knock on wood, we're just gonna keep trucking along.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

So you and I have a similar introduction to transplant. My dad received a liver transplant, and it was the same thing. He was never sick. We're 15 years out now, and he hasn't had any setbacks.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

And I'm even nerve about you. I think the small connection.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, that was my inspiration for wanting to donate a kidney. Um, it didn't go to him, it went to a stranger. But it's incredible when you are the recipient of a gift like that. And I know that it was your mother and my father, but we're also the recipient of this beautiful gift.

unknown 5:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

More people felt that impact. I think that this would be something that they cared more about.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

100%. I when I do presentations and I share a little bit about my story, I talk about how Mom has six grandchildren now that I remember going through this process with her and being like, I don't even know if I'm gonna see next year with her at this point. You know, I was you you hold on to all of those what ifs of are things gonna go well? Is she gonna be there walking down the aisle? Like, will she seem to have children one day? And so, yeah, 100% it impacts every single person around you. And that ripple effect is massive.

What AST Is And How It Helps

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah. So, what does the AST do?

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah, so the American Society of Transplantation is a professional organization for anyone working in the transplant field clinically or within research. So you have about 5,000 members. And so, so anyone from a nurse to a clinician, a researcher, a surgeon, really to have access to networking and white pages and just making sure that we're making the field a better place for all of the patients. But while we do have patient education and resources through Power to Save, um, it really is there for those professionals to network and collaborate and to expand the field. What's power to save? Yeah, so that's really where I come in. So I'm the transplant community program manager for AST, which is really there to support the community in whatever that means. So that can be a recipient, a living donor, a caregiver, someone who's waiting for a transplant, a donor family member. And Power to See was created in 2017. And it's had a lot of iterations, but it started out of the fundraising initiative. And then we brought together all of these patients from across the country to sort of do this advocacy workshop in DC. Then it transformed into representing the patient voice within ASC because the providers are so vital, but we can't do what we do without the patients, right? So it's really important to have them representative within the organization. So we, as providers and clinicians and everyone working in this field, know what we're doing for the patients is really for the patients because providers and patients have a lot of different ideas as to what's best for them. And so power to save is really there as a resource for that community to create education, material, resources, to just connect people. You know, I'm sure you know firsthand and dealing with all this and chatting with people, it's a very quiet club of people who go through this, right? Of living donors, of recipients, caregivers. People feel very alone in that. And so we're just doing our best to make sure that they have that network of support.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

And it's very patient focused.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Absolutely.

Power To Save: Patient Voices

SPEAKER_01 8:13

That's incredible. So one thing we've talked about in several episodes is donor protections, things like reimbursing travel and hotel for donors or reimbursing lost wages for donors. Um, these are all things that remove the barriers to donation for someone who wants to donate to make it easier and just essentially more comfortable for them to donate. One thing we haven't discussed in this podcast, though, is how somebody's employer can support them if they want to donate. The AST started something called Circle of Excellence. As you know, I'm a huge supporter of the circle of excellence. And as an employer, I'm a two-time member. Can you tell us a little bit about the circle of excellence?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yeah, absolutely. So we started the Living Donors Circle of Excellence program in 2020. And it's really there to reduce financial barriers for living donors. There are so many things that blockade people from going on to do this, and the number one being financial reasons. And so the goal here is that employers create HR policies for living donors to be able to give this gift without the use of their paid time off or vacation time or unpaid leave, because really we're all working to live. To be able to take that time off is really difficult for a lot of people, and it's a real big deterrent in terms of going to onto the other living organ donor. So this has a very minimal requirement. We ask that employers offer 80% of a person's pay for a minimum of four weeks. Ideally speaking, they're gonna offer more. We have a lot of organizations that offer eight to 12 weeks of fully paid leave for living donors. So that includes workup, the time off to recover, the post appointments and things along those lines, but really making it so that they don't have to worry that they're gonna lose time or their vacation or what have you in order to give this incredible gift, that it's gonna be completely covered for them to do it.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

And I really feel like when an employer offers this, they're saying to the donor, we believe that you're doing the right thing by donating an organ. And this is what we're doing to show you that we support you and the health of your body so that you can do this and feel good about doing it and then enjoy giving that gift.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Yeah, and not worry in the back end of like, oh, okay, well, you know, even if I'm not feeling 100% at three weeks, like I have to go back because I need to make sure that I don't use all of my time. It's just one of those things to reduce that worry of someone going through a major surgery, right? This is a major surgery we're talking about, giving this gift. And then to not have to have those concerns of if a paycheck is coming in is such a huge weight off someone's shoulders.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

It is. So, how many organizations, how many businesses do you have that are members right now?

Donor Protections And Employer Support

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, so we currently have 208 employers across North America, so Canada and the United States. We have one or two who are actual global employers as well. And really the reality is that there are probably so many others that are offering this, right? Especially when we have states who have these mandatory laws in place, just such a beautiful thing. Um, and we're covering close to 2.9 million people be able to give this gift. And 178 people have utilized this policy in order to give the gift of liver or kidney donation, which is just absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

That's a strong network. So, what are you doing to grow that network so that more businesses are aware of the opportunity?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, great question. So I would say we're we're very much grassroots. So I'm the only one leading this program at AST. We're a small but mighty organization. So at full staff, AST has 20 individuals that are working with us across the entire country and Canada. But the reality is that all of this is happening through networking. So the way that you and I met and going through the process of meeting individuals at different receptions and organizations and going to the conferences and reaching out to groups who have policies like this in place. And just sometimes getting your foot in the door to an organization to say, hey, here's my story. Here's a little bit about me. And we would love for you to be involved, is enough for someone to say, yeah, this is a really good thing. Why would I not be doing this?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

So, in your opinion, is it an easy sale when you're introduced to a decision maker in a company about this program?

Inside The Circle Of Excellence

SPEAKER_00 12:29

You know, that's such an interesting question because I think on paper it's really simple, right? You say, support this thing, it's really good. And they go, of course, I would love to support that. But the reality is that sometimes it takes a little bit longer than we would like it to, because there's a lot of red tape when you're talking about big hospital systems, which oftentimes we're working within there's unions and there's part-time and per GM employees. And so all that needs to be figured out. So I always tell organizations, you know, don't give up on it just because it might take a little bit of time. I'm happy to work with you over a two-year period. We had one hospital that we started the process when I first came on and we only just got them approved this past year. So it's taken us three years to get there, but that's all of this time for that organization where any employee coming forward is gonna be supported now. And I think the thing that's really vital for organizations to know is that this is not something that's gonna impact their organization in a negative way. I think that's the first thing HR representatives are asking. They're saying, like, oh, well, is this gonna increase our rates? Is this gonna make it so that people are gonna have to pay more money out of pocket? And the reality is that no, right? You know this firsthand. Someone going through this process is not paying for anything from the medical side. And so when you talk to organizations about this, sometimes the simple question is just, well, why are more organizations not doing this? And the question is really simple is that most organizations aren't familiar with this, just like most organizations aren't familiar, or most people aren't familiar with living donation as a whole. And so if you don't have someone coming forward and talking through this, it's very possible that that person or that leadership group or C-suite in that company has never even heard about living donation before. Um, and so really it's just talking about it and making sure that people are aware of it and know that this is something that people can do. I can't, and I'm sure you hear this all the time. And it sounds crazy for us who work in this field and who have done this, but I think I'm still surprised how few people know that living organ donation is a thing. It's just the reality. And so similarly, we're seeing with organizations that that's just the reality. They don't even realize that this is a possibility for their employees. And so once they find out that they can support them in a life-saving gift, they are so quick to be able to come on and work through that process with us.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Do they typically get involved because somebody in their organization is donating?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Sometimes it's because someone is going through that process, and other times it's simply because someone is bringing it to the table who has a personal connection, like you and I. And I think the more we talk about this, the more we share those stories, the more that people are connected to it, it becomes a much easier conversation. And so then it really is this question of, you know, well, the why not would we do this? Why would we not move forward with this and be able to help people and remove people from the wait list? It's such a simple thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

And the chance of them actually having a living donor. I mean, of course we want it to be like, oh my God, everybody in my organization's donating. What did I do getting into this program? Um, I would love that for every organization. But I mean, you said there's been 179 donations. That's not a lot. It's funny.

Adoption Challenges And HR Realities

SPEAKER_00 15:40

I always joke, right? Wouldn't it be great if a company with 36,000 people, everyone ran to go give a kidney or a liver? How beautiful. But the reality is that in a five-year time frame, you maybe will have one, two, if it's like an unusual situation, who go on to give this gift. Um, and you may not have anyone who does it. Right. We can't predict when someone's gonna go through this process. And I would love, like you just said, for everyone to be running out the door and saying, well, I'm gonna do this because I have 12 weeks off of work. How wonderful. Perhaps it's just not the reality. And maybe in five to 10 years, we're gonna have more and more people signing up as living donors. But the reality is that that's just not the case right now. And all we can do in this moment is just provide them that support, even if it's just up front. A person can go through this process and not even be approved to donate. But at least they know that during those workups, which you know are vast and many, that they're gonna have that pay time off in order to get that workup done. And they don't have to worry that their employer is sitting there on the other side saying, like, oh, they really should buy back here now. Like, you know, I want to make sure that they're focusing on this. When having the policy in the first place just shows that they support them holistically as a human being to be able to give that gift.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

And to your point, too, I think it's important to note that this program covers time off related to testing, donation, and recovery. So it's spread out and it gives them flexibility whether they end up ultimately donating or not. Yep, absolutely. One of the reasons I asked you if it was a hard sell is because when I saw you last at the AST party. Did you plan that party? Yes, I I planned that reception. I I have to tell you, I that was so much fun. But you remember what I promised you I would do? Oh no, no, I already you've been doing it.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

You're connecting with my Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

So the promise I made is that I was gonna reach out to a company a week. I I reviewed the process of what it looks like, and it's literally a form that takes two minutes to complete. Upload your policy. And so what I did when I got home is I got my policy out. I emailed all my business owner friends, and I was like, here's my policy. You know, you can copy and paste it, you can do whatever you want, I'll upload it for you. I'll fill out the form and then you'll be a member. There was like crookets.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Yeah, yeah, it's so funny because when I talk to someone like you, it's so easy and so relatable because I joke with my husband all the time. I'm like, I don't understand why everyone isn't just doing this, right? And when I say doing this, I mean like as a being, we can solve this issue we have globally for this organ shortage. And so I joke with him all the time. And he's like, I know that you're so serious about this, and I know that you genuinely mean that, but like it sounds crazy when you say it from an outside perspective. And I'm like, but it really is so simple. Like, I just and I'm already chatting with him. I'm actually coming up on my two-year post stop. I'm going to Penn on Friday. And I was already chatting with him about how I want to donate a portion of my liver. And he's like, can we just get through a portion of our life with a six and a four-year-old before you're going in for an elective surgery to donate an organ again? And I'm like, all right, I'm not rushing it, but like I'm just telling you, I'm already thinking about it. Again, it's such a crazy thing to donate born organ. But now I'm like, I need to be in this club of the two organ domination group, which is such an anomaly to, you know, I thought you donated born organ, but because we're so involved in this, I'm like, well, now we must. Next step, lure. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah, I'm not totally on the same page as either, but I just I admire the double donors. The amount of them I've met is truly wild. It's really crazy. It is. It's it's becoming normalized. Yes. It's like it's becoming normalized more quickly than kidney donation alone is getting normalized. It's a great point. And it speaks volumes to people have such a positive experience doing it once that they're going back and and looking for their way to duplicate that. That's yeah, truly wild. Yeah. Yeah. So can you please share with us a little bit about your donation story?

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I mentioned before the story about my mom. And obviously, we have polycystic kidney disease in my family. So, you know, my mom has it, my dad doesn't. I have three siblings. Each of us has a 50-50 chance of getting that hereditary disease. My brother was also diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease in his 30s. So he went through the process as well. And it did not go as smooth as my mom's. And I was in my mid-20s at the time that he was getting listed. And I was like, this is it. Now's my time. I'm ready to go. I really want to do this. And because PKD can develop a little bit later in life, they were very hesitant to have me donate at that time.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Meaning they were afraid that you might have PKD later, but they didn't know until you've already donated. And now you've got one kidney in PKD.

Brooke’s Path To Donation

Paid Leave Made Donation Possible

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Yeah. And now I've given him another PKD kidney. Exactly. So it'd be a real like sister move to like Yeah, that would be like a real take. Which I joke about now, but I was devastated to like hear that news because in my mind, I had already decided that I was going to be his donor, everything was going to be fine. We had seen him once with my mom and dad. I knew it was going to be okay. So it was a real process for me to hear that. And I was going with him to all of his appointments and like everything like that, um, and really being an advocate for him. And thankfully, we were very lucky. His girlfriend, turned fiance, turned wife at the time, was able to donate in a paired exchange with him. Everything is going great for them as well. But that really sort of kicked off this idea that maybe I can't do this. Maybe because of my family history, I'm not going to be able to do this. And so I went through a period of a few years where I sort of accepted that and told myself that what I'm doing in the field is still beneficial to the transplant community. I'm still doing what I can to help everyone going in through this process. Um, but then I started at AST and quickly learned that they created a circle of excellence program and that they offered 12 weeks of fully paid leave for organ donors. We had just had our second child and last. Um, and I said to my husband, I was like, Do you think I can try to do this again? Because at that point I had no idea what any of that looked like for me. I was in my early 30s. That was like the golden age for if you were gonna develop PKD, you would have done it by that point. So he was like, Listen, I know you've always wanted to do this. If you really want to go through with it, let's go through with it. I got genetic testing done, filled out a couple of forms online for living donation through the local hospital systems. I reached out to all of my contacts about what it wasn't gonna involve and entail and like the voucher program and everything you could think about. Penn got back to me and they were just so phenomenal, walked me through the process, answered all my questions because I had actually been ruled out by another transplant program. Because of your family history? Because of the family history. Yeah. So I was very prepared. I was like, listen, I know that this may not be a potential for me. So they were like, you know, there's actually a lot of research on this. You're in your early 30s, you have had no signs or symptoms, your kidneys look beautiful, like your blood pressure is great. There's really no concern on our end that you have polycystic kidney disease. The genetic testing was all clear, yada yada. So I decided I was going to donate to a stranger. If AST didn't offer the 12 weeks, would I still have donated a kidney? Maybe. Would it have been later in life? Probably. That's the reality of the situation is that I'm a mom, I own a home, we have a lot of bills. For me to be able to take all of that time off and not worry about a paycheck is really the reason I was able to donate when I could in 2023. And I was so certain, you know, I work remote, I sit at my desk, I don't have a labor-intensive job. I was like, I'll be back in two weeks. I'm just like fine. Everything went really well in terms of recovery. However, I got the realization very quickly that I just had major abdominal surgery and they cut through all of my muscles. And I was not up and running a marathon in two weeks, though bigger. And so I returned to work at six weeks with the understanding that during those six weeks, I'm gonna take it day by day. And if I don't feel good and I need to be out another week, I can. And that feeling was such a relief for me going through this process because I don't think people fully grasp the mental toll that living donation takes. And I'm very, very honest about my experience. And I was told going into it that you can sort of have a depressive episode post-donation. And I very much felt that. And I was doing everything I could to hide it at the time, I think, because I didn't want to do anything to put a negative light on living donation. Like I was like, everything's great, I'm fine, no worries. And thank God for my team at Penn, who very much saw through that with me. I went in for my post op evals, and they were like, you know, how are you feeling? Are you having any depressive episodes? And I gave the, you know, just the same amount as everyone else. It worked quick too. Like, meanwhile, you're sobbing. They were like, Well, this the normal amount would be zero. So how much are you actually having? And the best way I can describe it is for someone who's had a child, like that postpartum feeling of you spent all this time leading up and prepping and doing this workup to donate this kidney. And then you got to this huge culmination where you donated, and then everything just sort of goes away. And it's very bizarre. It just sort of is done. So I felt so much better knowing that I had those 12 weeks that if I needed them physically, mentally, emotionally, it was there for me. And it just allowed my recovery to be that much smoother. And I feel so thankful to AST for offering that because I don't know if I would have had the successful recovery that I had without having that time in place. For anyone who's gone through this process and everyone's experience is different. Like I was tired from those six to 12 weeks. Like I definitely was more fatigued than normal. And I hear liver donation is even worse because your body is like regenerating that organ. There's just so much that plays into it. All things considered, my recovery was picture perfect. I didn't have any things that put me in the hospital or infections or things that would have required me to take more time. And so, even a picture perfect recovery, I was out for six weeks. And it's for a great thing. And I said this to you before: like I would do it all over again. I want to do it all over again with liver, but you have to know going into it that you really need the support of all of your connections and work being such a huge part of that is so important, which is why I think the circle program really does just reduce all of that concern when you're going through this process.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I agree a hundred percent. And I appreciate that you shared about the depression you had afterwards. It's a very real thing. And my husband sometimes reminds me that I leave that part of my story out when I tell my story. And it's funny because when I think back on my donation, which it was a long time ago at this point, I don't think about that part at all. Probably it's like, you know, you have two kids, the birth you were screaming, but then it's like, ah I'm you just shut it out. Yeah, yeah, you shut out the bad part and or the hard part, yeah, wasn't necessarily bad, but yeah, yeah, it was one of those things where I knew it was possible and that they just said, we don't know why, but people experienced this afterwards, and I didn't think that would be me. So when it was me, I felt like I was doing something wrong, or I just really questioned myself a lot. Or you know, like why I was feeling that way. And then I went back to work on my third week, and it was a hundred percent I wanted to show to demonstrate, like, look at we can all do this and go back to work. That matters hundred percent. Yeah, and I wish I hadn't done that. So if if I could have done something different looking back, I would have allowed myself more time.

Recovery, Mental Health, And Support

SPEAKER_00 28:26

It's a big change to your life. And and I would say only recently I started talking about that depressive episode I had because I feel similarly, I feel so protective of living donation because we want this to become such a normal part of life and we want others to do it. We're so quick to focus on all the good, which it truly is so good. And when I talk about that part of it and similar to you, it's not a bad part of it, but it is a blip that I think I, ah, like I just wish that hadn't happened. But I could wish a thousand things hadn't happened and they're still there and they're still a part of my story. This is something that we need to be shared and discussed openly because I think if we're prepared for it, we can navigate it a little bit better. It's always hard to talk about the difficult parts. And I just did a presentation about person-centered care as opposed to patient-centered care. And I talked about that story in particular about how the reason my team was able to help me is because they knew me as the whole person. They knew Brooke and not just the living donor. Because I don't think they would have been able to help me if they just said, oh, this is Brooke. She donated a kidney and like just having like this little episode, but everything's fine. We'll get through it. It's very normal. You know, they spent so much time with me talking through that and saying, it's okay. Don't downplay it. Let yourself feel those feelings. You are going through a lot. You just donated an organ. This is not normal. It is something that we're sort of learning as we go as to why our brains are functioning in this way after something like this.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Yeah, I totally agree with that. Closing up today, I just have one more question about the circle of excellence. What do you suggest a prospective donor does if they're interested in getting their company into the circle of excellence?

SPEAKER_00 30:12

I always say the best thing to do right off the bat is to reach out to someone at the AST. So I would be the best contact, but anyone you reach out to is going to be able to connect you with me. And that's because I can send over a slew of information for both the employee and the employer to look over. We also have videos of people who are sharing their experience as employers of as to what this has brought to their company culture. And then I can help them navigate those conversations. It does take time and we just have to sort of work through that. And sometimes companies already have something in place that meets the need of that person. So chatting with someone like myself at AST, working with your HR within your organization to say, hey, this is something I'm interested in bringing to the company is really a great place to start.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

So they contact you and your team and you give them the tools they need to do the pitch on their own or to connect them with somebody in your organization to better explain what this is all about.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

100%. And you have some people who are happy to do that pitch solo and some people who are happy to punt it. And I will take that punt every single time. Nice. I'm gonna keep punting to you then.

Person Centered Care Lessons

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Yes, please. I'm just incredibly grateful for everything that you do. You're an inspiration and you've just done so much in your career. And uh, you're just such a beautiful beautiful example of somebody who was given a gift and then kept giving that gift.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

I feel the same way about you, Lori. Thank you. And I can't wait to see you at the next party.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Yes, absolutely. We're already prepping for 2026.

How To Get Your Company Onboard

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Okay. Please get me on the invite list. Yes, I will. Thanks so much, Brooke. Thanks, Lori. Okay, so I made maybe foolishly, a huge promise to Brooke, and I could really use your help keeping it. I told her I was gonna get 50 companies signed up this year to join the circle of excellence. And let's just say I've got some catching up to do. So if your company already supports living donors the way Brooke described, with a really great HR policy, leave policy, or if you'd like to create a policy that does, you can do that with us today and join today because honestly, why wouldn't you make it easier for someone to save a life? I mean, most of us would hold the elevator for a stranger. This is just the next logical step. Check out my show notes to connect with me or Brooke or to fill out that super short form we referred to and upload your company's existing policy to show your support and join the circle of excellence because it really, really matters. This season of Donor Diaries is proudly sponsored by Giftworks, an organization dedicated to empowering organ recipients and living donors through education, advocacy, and support. By helping patients share their journeys and connect with donors, Giftworks ensures everyone feels supported throughout the transplant process. We're honored to partner with a team that's transforming lives one transplant at a time. To learn more, visit yourgiftworks.com. And remember, kindness matters and it's always a choice. This is Lori Lee signing off.