Campaign to Find a Donor4Sue

The Leitner family announced the launch of their campaign Donor4Sue to spread the word about Susan Leitner’s need for a living kidney donor for transplant. Official social media channels will be updated regularly to share Sue’s journey and educate others on organ donation. 

Now marks the 18-year anniversary of Sue’s first kidney transplant. Her mother, Joyce Lenard, who was 67 at the time, was not only the perfect match, but Columbia Presbyterian’s oldest living kidney donor at the time. The mother-daughter duo went on to participate in the Transplant Olympic Games, and volunteer with the National Kidney Foundation. Now, Sue says, “I’ve had to slow down a lot the last few years as my kidneys started to decline again.” 

There are currently more than 8,000 New Yorkers waiting on a kidney. Though live kidney donation has increased by 24% nationwide in the last decade due to its efficacy and ability to reduce wait times for recipients, only 521 people in New York volunteered as a living kidney donor in 2018. New York State’s transplant wait list remains the fourth longest in the nation.

The Donor4Sue campaign is a digital communications campaign launched October 1, 2021, by New York natives Susan, Robert, and Matthew Leitner, members of Scarsdale Synagogue Temples Tremont and Emanu-El. Sue has been living with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis since 1992. Donor4Sue’s goal is to spread the word about Sue’s need for a living kidney donor for transplant. Sue is registered with New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Transplant Medical Center in New York City.

To learn about Sue’s story, visit: 

Website: www.donor4sue.com;

Facebook: @Donor4Sue;

Instagram: @donor4sue; Key Hashtag: 

#Donor4Sue