Transplant Links Community

Transplant Links Community (TLC) is a UK registered charity that provides hands on training and mentoring in kidney transplantation for healthcare professionals in low- and middle-income countries. TLC originally started in 2007 as a grassroots community comprised of a small group of healthcare professionals who used their annual leave to travel to share their skills with colleagues in LMICs. It is now an international organisation with a medical faculty of over 50 volunteer clinicians working collaboratively with a network of emerging transplant units all over the world. The aim is to assist in the development of sustainable, ethical living-donor transplant units so that more patients around the world can have access to this life saving treatment. Training is provided for all healthcare professionals involved in a transplant programme including surgeons, doctors, nurses, transplant coordinators and social workers. The type of support ranges from hands on surgical assistance (in situ), placements in the UK, long term support and assistance in developing the infrastructure needed to coordinate a transplant programme, online education in the form of videos, presentations, podcasts and seminars, the development of patient information materials and everything in between.