GOLD Phone Buddy Scheme
The Phone Buddy Scheme offers Black kidney patients support from trained Black peers who have lived experience of living donation. They’ll share their stories, answer your questions, and provide support that speaks to your culture and community. Talking to a phone buddy can empower you to start conversations about living donation with your family and friends.
The Phone Buddy Scheme is a peer-led support service designed for Black patients affected by end-stage kidney disease, as well as potential donors.
Our trained volunteers, known as Phone Buddies, offer weekly or biweekly check-ins for up to 12 weeks. They provide a safe and respectful space for patients and potential donors to talk, learn, and receive support through shared lived experiences.
The scheme offers a safe space where patients can talk with Black living donors and living donor recipients who understand the cultural barriers to living donation for their community.
Training
The Phone Buddy training programme covers communication and listening skills, confidentiality, safeguarding, setting boundaries, equality, inclusion and emotional resilience.
Phone Buddies are trained to listen without judgment, build trust, and encourage positive conversations around their health. The aim is to prepare buddies to offer meaningful, non-clinical support to others facing similar challenges in discussing living donation.
The Phone Buddy Scheme and the GOLD Mission
We’re on a mission to equip and empower Black kidney patients with the confidence to talk about living donation with family and friends as these conversations have the potential to facilitate a pre-emptive transplant avoiding the need for long term dialysis.
Having the support of a phone buddy can make a big difference to a patient’s care, experience and wellbeing. We know that many in Black communities, particularly older people, are less likely to discuss their health concerns with their families and friends – the scheme directly address the need to help these crucial conversations take place.
How it works
The GOLD Buddy scheme works on a clinical or self referral basis, making it a valuable tool for clinicians to integrate into their routine clinical practice when discussing living donation with Black patients.
Once a clinical referral has been agreed and consent given, patients have the opportunity to speak with a trained peer phone buddy. Patients are matched according to suitability through our matching process.
The scheme offers a 12-week programme, however this is flexible depending on the needs of the patient.
The phone buddy scheme is extended to family and friends who have come forward as living donors and want to learn more about being a living donor.
What Buddies do for patients
You’ll have regular check-in calls as a Buddy at a time you agree on with the person you’re supporting. The calls usually last around 30 to 60 minutes.
You’re a friendly, listening ear there to chat, listen without judgment, and offer emotional support. Your role is to listen, empathise, and help others explore the option of living kidney donation.
Whilst buddies offer suggestions and share advice, they won’t tell people what to do.
Your training means you’ll work in a safe and compassionate way offering a consistent, trusted connection with someone who needs support.
Derricka, connecting with community
One of the benefits of being a phone buddy is that I don’t only get to share my story of living donation, but I also listen to patients’ stories.
I hear why it is so difficult for many of them to ask friends and family for a kidney, I listen to their fears and concerns and in some cases hear how guilty they feel when a loved one has offered to donate.
I offer tips and suggestions that can empower them to start the conversation of living donation with their family and friends. The regular contact with my buddy match is very helpful as they often ask questions they can’t ask their nurse or consultant. I sometimes signpost them to other services if they need additional support.
I love sharing in their joy and excitement when a potential donor has come forward. Being a phone buddy allows me to connect with my community and impact lives. It’s a privilege being with a patient at the start of their kidney journey, and as one of my buddy matches said “it is a journey of hope”
Eric, breaking down barriers
I am a peer phone buddy and I have lived experience of living donation. I share the knowledge and experience I have gained to help people from my community navigate their kidney journey.
I am aware some people living with kidney disease need empowerment, encouragement and support in talking with loved ones about living donation. I support Black patients who may be experiencing difficulties in discussing living donation, have no knowledge of the living donor process and have lots of questions!
My lived experience is very valuable, my donor story is very moving and for some patients I have spoken with it’s a game changer in their attitude towards living donation. I am part of a community and I enjoy helping others to break down the barriers and stigma of organ donation in the Black Community. But more importantly, being a phone buddy gives me the opportunity to give back to my community, raise awareness of the benefits of living donation and give people hope again.
Bertram, why I became a Buddy
By The Community For The Community
Many Black living donors and recipients feel a deep sense of pride in giving back to their community, being a phone buddy is one of the ways they can give back and support their community. We have receive positive feedback from our phone buddies on how rewarding the scheme is for them.
At the heart of the relationship between a patient and a phone buddy are the stories, support and information they share to help answer questions and concerns patients have about living donation. Our phone buddies listen with empathy, understanding and respect the views of others. Their stories are changing the narrative in living donation.
If you would like to sign up to become a volunteer phone buddy, please click the link to complete the online application or email us Buddy@giftoflivingdonation. org.uk