Living donation in the broader picture
Living-donor kidney transplants accounted for 6,419 of the 27,660 kidney transplants performed in the United States in 2024, according to the OPTN/SRTR 2024 Annual Data Report cited in the article through PubMed. The same report gives 143,982 adult candidates on the national kidney waitlist that year and says 10.7 percent had waited at least five years.
The article also cites federal Health Resources and Services Administration data showing 7,030 living donors nationwide in 2024, including 476 donors aged 65 or older. That older-donor count was 14.2 percent higher than in 2023 and more than twice the annual total in 2016.
A transplant in Memphis
Stacy Hobson received a living-donor kidney transplant at Methodist Transplant Institute in Memphis on August 12, 2025. She had previously survived chronic myeloid leukemia. LocalMemphis reports that her kidney function had fallen to seven percent and that she managed kidney disease for years without dialysis.
The donor, Jenny Joyner, was a stranger to Hobson before the operation. Scoop Upworthy reports that Joyner began considering living donation after seeing a Facebook post about it. The Tri-State Defender reports that Joyner understood her decision as guided by faith. These details come from the outlets’ reporting, not independent interviews for this article.
Advocacy following Hobson’s transplant
Hobson later wrote the memoir Yield, Heal & Thrive!, which includes commentary from Dr. Vasanthi Balaraman, Methodist’s medical director of living donor kidney transplant, and established a nonprofit with the same name. The Tri-State Defender reports that the organization aims to support kidney health and transplant patients and donors; the article describes its advocacy focus as kidney health in minority communities.
In Tennessee, Tennessee Donor Services reported that 488 posthumous organ donors provided 1,371 organs in 2024 and that the agency registered 170,000 new organ and tissue donors statewide that year. Those figures offer local context for Hobson’s advocacy, but do not establish the effect of her organization.
