Founder, CEO 

Dr Dela Idowu, Founder of Gift of Living Donation( GOLD)and the Black Living Donor Choir is a passionate advocate for community development and improving equitable access to living donation for people from the Black African Caribbean community living with kidney disease. With a career spanning global, national and local community health from HIV/AIDS to renal care, Dr Dela Idowu’s leadership and drive for change has seen her receive recognition for her outstanding community work.

Dr Dela Idowu set up GOLD after coming forward as a potential living kidney donor for her brother who was diagnosed with kidney disease. Although she was not a compatible match she brings a wealth of knowledge and insight on coming forward as a living donor and addressing the barriers for Black families through her book More Than a Match and her short film We Are Family.

Dela is a member of the UK Kidney Advisory Board (KAG) and is dedicated to putting patients at the heart of transplantation to improve health outcomes and promote equitable and sustainable community – led interventions.

Buddy Volunteer Coordinator 

I support the phone buddies with informal chats before matching starts, checking in after they have spoken to the patient/potential donor and maintaining contact with the buddy to see how the contact with their buddy is progressing.

For the past six years I have worked as a community healthcare worker with the NHS. Prior to this I worked for 30+ years in adult social care for Lambeth, Hackney, Haringey and Enfield in roles that included residential care worker, day centre worker, senior day service worker and team manager. I worked mainly with people with learning disabilities and latterly older people experiencing dementia. 

I’m a black living donor and a member of GOLD’s Black Living Donor Choir.

I donated my spare kidney to my son in April 2018. He completed the London Marathon in April 2024.

Hear Sarah’s Story

Operations Manager

Denise is an experienced social work professional, consultant, and academic with over two decades of expertise in project management, safeguarding, and social justice.

Denise’s career includes significant roles in local government, where she has managed award-winning teams and delivered high-impact projects under national government initiatives.

Her experience spans implementing major agendas like the Troubled Families Programme and the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, where she led multidisciplinary teams, developed policies, and drove operational improvements.

Denise’s diverse background, combined with her passion for education and social change, makes her a respected figure in the fields of social work and community development and a key asset to the GOLD Team.

Trustee, Clinical Support (referral coordinator)

Carleen qualified as a Registered General Nurse (RGN) in 1986, and has worked in the various areas of Renal Nursing for over 35 years, at Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Trust. This included Haemodialysis, Renal Outpatient sister, Transplant sister, then to my latter role of Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in Advanced Kidney Care (AKCC).

I love my role as I can empower patients to manage their kidney health better.

Choir Director

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Author, Occupational Therapist, Social Scientist

Dr. Blaine Robin is a community activist and political commentator who offers a range of interventions to help other people. He describes these as the five peg’s of Professional Resilience. He learned to develop his interventions primarily through observation of how lay and professional social workers supported people in the community. 

Blaine is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University at the School of Health. He is the module lead for Occupations Across the Lifespan; Admissions lead for the BSc Occupational Therapy and co-lecturer on the MSc programme Occupational Therapy.

Trustee

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Treasurer

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