Pittsburgh-based nonprofit seeks live organ donors to give others the gift of life

PITTSBURGH — April is “Donate Life Month,” a time to encourage people to become organ donors and give the gift of life.

Now, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit is raising awareness about live donors.

Channel 11 anchor Lisa Sylvester learned how donors can save someone’s life while they are still alive, with the potential to save thousands of people.

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In January 2025, Joseph Wolski thought he just had the flu, feeling fatigued, run-down and tired. But when he went to the doctor, it turned out it was much more than that.

“I knew I was sick, but I had no idea I was that sick,” Wolksi recalled. “They had given me a 10% chance to make it.”

Doctors diagnosed him with a rare autoimmune disease called GPA vasculitis, where his immune system attacks an enzyme in the walls of the capillaries inside his lungs and kidneys.

What followed was six weeks in the hospital — three of them in the ICU. Joe recovered, but his kidney was failing.

Through it all, his fiancée, Shannon McNamara, was by his side.

“Her support was just amazing,” Wolski said. “I had to tell her take a break go home, and she wouldn’t do it. She came every day. It really means a lot to me.”

Shannon is still by his side, now on a new mission to find Joe a new kidney.

“We really feel that there is someone out there that is going to be willing to give Joe the gift of life,” she said.

Shannon heard about the Live Donor Project, co-founded by Krista Tevar, whose husband is a transplant surgeon.

The new Pittsburgh-based nonprofit is helping patients share their stories and connect with potential organ donors.

“I hear day in and day out how many more people and lives saved if there were just more live donors,” Tevar said. “These people are dying on the wait list.”

You’ve seen yard signs of people needing an organ. The Live Donor Project is another way to get the message out with free, easy-to-share web pages.

Their mission is to educate people that a live donor can donate a kidney or part of the liver to someone and still live a normal life.

Co-founder Daniel Grealish donated his kidney to save his dad.

“There are 1,300 folks on the list in Pittsburgh,” Grealish said. Across the world, hundreds of thousands we think we can make a tangible impact, and that’s what we set out to do with Live Donor Project."

One of those people still praying for another shot at a full life is Joe Wolski.

“We are just hoping for the generosity and find someone, and can reach out. ... Even if not a match for me, might be a match for someone else, so potential for someone else on the list to get a kidney as well, and that might start a chain reaction on the list to get a couple of people kidneys. That is our hope that someone is generous enough to donate.”

There are 100,000 people in the U.S. waiting for a transplant.

The Live Donor Project is free, and anyone can create an individual page on the site and share their story. Click here for more information.

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