Julie Owen

• Donor Mentor
• Double Living Donor

Julie started her donation journey in the summer of 2018. After doing some research, she decided to start looking into living liver donation.

At that time, altruistic liver donation wasn’t a common practice at transplant centers, and she ended up connecting with someone on social media who had unexpectedly gone into liver failure due to a genetic condition that he didn’t even know he had.

She traveled to his transplant center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, in September to do her two-day workup. In December 2018, she donated 65% of her liver.

In the spring of 2021, Julie once again felt ready to start the donation process and began looking into kidney donation. She went in for her workup that summer, and in December was cleared to donate at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Because she was a relatively easy match, the transplant center waited to schedule her donation until they had a recipient who was difficult to match, so the transplant did not take place until February 2023. Not only was Julie able to help her recipient directly, but because she was donating altruistically, she was able to start a chain that allowed several more people to receive a kidney.

Becoming a living donor was one of the highlights of her life. She likes to tell people that the donors are the lucky ones because they get to make the decision to help someone, whereas those awaiting a kidney or liver transplant have little or no control over their situation.

If she were able, she would do it again in a second! Today, she is so grateful to have the opportunity to join other potential donors on their journey and support them as a donor mentor through both the NKR and NLR.