KTLA

68-year-old Altadena woman stands above freeway with sign looking for kidney donor

A 68-year-old woman from Altadena is in Stage 5 kidney failure and she’s searching for a living donor. Most week days, Debra Starr-Knecht and her husband Wayne Knecht stand over the 405 Freeway during rush hour, holding up signs to spread the word.

“COVID has made our search for a donor more challenging. We consciously thought about where are people?” Starr-Knecht said, adding that the current wait for a deceased donor kidney could be four to six years.

She is registered at the UCLA Transplant Center. For more information about Starr-Knech’s journey, visit kidney4debra.com.

Correction: A previous version of this story provided an incorrect age for Starr-Knecht. This story has been updated.