Giving the selfless gift of a kidney

After donating bone marrow for his brother’s successful battle with cancer, Chris Checchio wondered how else he could use his healthy body to save others.

Then he heard a journalist share his positive experience making a kidney donation. He learned about the massive need for donor kidneys in a country where 11 people die every day waiting in vain for a donor organ.

At UCI Health alone, more than 700 people with end-stage kidney disease are awaiting a transplant. He also learned that a kidney from a healthy living donor lasts longer and has fewer complications than a kidney from deceased donors.

“I realized immediately that was something I could do that would make a real difference,” Checchio recalls. “How can I know that there’s a huge need and not do something about it?”

The 38-year-old tech company executive finance manager placed himself on the National Kidney Registry. He said his donation didn’t have to go to anyone in particular, just someone in need.

As a Lake Forest resident, he reached out to the UCI Health Kidney Transplant Program, which is among just 31 U.S. Donor Care Network Centers of Excellence, one of four in the state and the only one in Orange County. It’s also the county’s oldest and largest transplant program.

Intensive evaluation

Like all potential organ donors, Checchio was evaluated to ensure that he would be healthy enough to live with one kidney.

Fitness exams include blood, heart, hepatitis and urine tests, as well as imaging, tissue typing and cross-matching to help determine organ compatibility with possible recipients.

“It was intensive,” he remembers. “I really felt like they were making sure this would be good for me and that I could handle it.

“They didn’t just want my kidney. It has to be a fit.”

Checchio was approved November 2025 and donated his kidney in December 2025. He doesn’t know who received it, just that it was transplanted successfully.

“That’s enough for me,” he says.

A quick recovery

After getting past a challenging couple of days of shoulder pain, which is caused by the gas used to inflate the abdomen during surgery, Checchio says his recovery was quick.

He was limited to carrying just 10 pounds during the first few weeks of recovery. An avid sourdough baker (left), his Dutch oven came in just a few ounces under that — too close for comfort. For a few weeks, his wife of nearly 10 years, Julie, stepped in to assist.

He also had to take it easy with his 8-year-old golden doodle, Griffin, for a bit.

Now five months out from his lifesaving donation to a stranger, Checchio is healthy, enjoying life and back to all his favorite activities. Soon, he’ll be cleared to resume regular blood donations, something he looks forward to.

Checchio’s friends and family were surprised by his donation. They were even more surprised when he explained the dire need for living kidney donors in Orange County and the nation.

“Everyone asked me, ‘There are people who need a kidney?’ Yes, I tell them. There are so many people in need, and this is something people can do to help.”