Ghaneshwari (Priya) D. Ramdas, a kidney transplant recipient, is an unpaid volunteer with New England Donor Services (NEDS), one of the largest organ procurement organizations in the country.
She provides education about organ donation and transplantation, in addition to sharing her personal testimony at hospitals, municipalities, schools and community events.
Ramdas also fundraises for NEDS through the organization’s annual walk/5K event.
What have been your significant contributions to your organization in the past year?
For National Donor Day, I spoke alongside Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam at Hartford City Hall, and shared how organ donation saved my life, while calling attention to the importance of equitable organ transplantation.
During National Donor Month, I dedicated my time to knitting hearts for the hospital staff at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford in honor of my anonymous donor. I also recently spoke to staff at The Hospital of Central Connecticut, Yale’s general care practitioners and Middlesex Hospital’s nursing grand rounds to share my organ donation story.
Tell us about a challenge in your job that you were able to overcome.
I was unsure about publicly sharing my donation story when I first started volunteering at NEDS. However, the more activities I did, the more confident I became. I saw that people were interested in hearing my story and its positive impact on others.
Talking about my donation journey helps people better understand organ donation’s life-saving importance.
What’s your next major goal?
My goal is to encourage more people to register as organ donors. Today, there are more than 100,000 people on the national transplant waiting list.
By checking ‘yes’ on your driver’s license application, you can save lives. Working with NEDS, I am always looking for new ways to educate the community on how to register as a donor.
How are you involved in the community?
I’ve been volunteering at NEDS for eight years and have consistently shown up to advocate for organ donation. I enjoy volunteering at my son’s elementary school on behalf of NEDS to educate about organ and tissue donation.
Fun Fact
As a former actress, I had roles in ‘America’s Most Wanted’ with John Walsh, ‘Law and Order,’ and appeared in a full season of ‘Madame Secretary.’ I also appeared in Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘I Really Like You’ music video, where I met Tom Hanks.