Press Releases

The National Kidney Registry Renal Warriors crossed the finish line of the 300+ mile Source to City Rat Race in downtown Manhattan on Monday, September 22, 2025. The team of four kidney transplant recipients and seven living kidney donors began their journey four days earlier in Lake Placid with a technical and grueling 18-mile hike …

The National Kidney Registry (NKR) is proud to sponsor a team of 11 transplant recipients and donors as they take on the grueling Rat Race: Source to City, a 316‑mile multisport traverse of the Hudson River Valley, beginning at the river’s source in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and ending in Battery Park, …

On September 22, 2024, living kidney donor Elizabeth Young competed in the Women’s Ironman World Championship in Nice, France. Young’s participating in the event was sponsored by the National Kidney Registry. Young donated a kidney to a stranger in 2022. She has completed 12 Ironman competitions, six of them since her donation. She completed the …

Theron Hayes has gone above and beyond to make a life-changing difference. He donated a kidney in 2023, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail to raise awareness for living kidney donation with sponsorship from the National Kidney Registry, and is now preparing to donate a portion of his liver to a stranger. Hayes’ kidney donation journey …

On September 27, 2024, four women completed a four-day, 444-mile bicycle ride to raise awareness for living kidney donation. The four women, all living kidney donors, were sponsored by the National Kidney Registry. The bicycle ride began in Nashville, Tennessee, and traveled along the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile recreational road and scenic drive through …

On August 2–3, 2024, a team of seven kidney donors, five kidney recipients, and two drivers/support crew who are also donors will compete in the Wild West Relay, a 200-mile journey through the Rocky Mountains consisting of 16,000 feet of climbing at elevations of two miles above sea level. This is a unique effort to …

Hilary Baude, a living kidney donor athlete sponsored by the National Kidney Registry, has completed the 1K12M (One Kidney, 12 Marathons) challenge. Baude, along with fellow NKR-sponsored kidney donor athlete Matt Cavanaugh, tackled the 1K12M challenge to shatter the misperception that kidney donation imposes physical limits on donors by completing 12 marathons within one year.

On December 10, Matt Cavanaugh, a living kidney donor athlete sponsored by the National Kidney Registry, completed the Honolulu Marathon, the final marathon in the 1K12M (One Kidney, 12 Marathons) challenge. In early 2023, Cavanaugh set out to shatter the misperception that kidney donation imposes physical limits on donors by completing 12 sub-3-hour marathons within …

Kidney donor athlete Matt Cavanaugh is gearing up for the final marathon of the 1K12M (One Kidney, 12 Marathons) challenge, the Honolulu Marathon on December 10, 2023. 1K12M is a full-year challenge sponsored by the National Kidney Registry, in which Cavanaugh and fellow living kidney donor Hilary Baude will participate in 12 marathons throughout 2023 …

If you are a living donor athlete or a professional who works at a transplant center with dreams of competing in a major athletic event in 2024, the National Kidney Registry is excited to announce an opportunity for financial sponsorship through the Donor Games initiative. The Donor Games is dedicated to promoting the importance of …