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"I'd get in the office and by 10 o'clock, that was it. I was done," said Fossett, an insurance salesman from Greenbelt.

Fossett, who learned in 2002 at age 58 that he had been born with just one kidney, said he was lucky. He only had to wait nine months for a transplant.

"I'm still alive," he said.

Fossett's story defies the numbers. People who need a kidney often spend about five years waiting for a transplant.

More than 350 Prince George's County residents — about 17 percent of the 2,100 on the Washington, D.C., suburban organ donation waiting list — are waiting for a transplant.

Minority health issues account for a great deal of the need for donors. Because of predispositions to high blood pressure, diabetes and other conditions, roughly 75 percent of the people whose kidneys shut down are black, transplant officials say. Kidneys filter toxins from the bloodstream.

According to 2004 state health figures, the most recent numbers available, nearly 50,000 people in Prince George's County were diagnosed with diabetes, accounting for about 8 percent of all the cases in the state. More than 64 percent of those diagnosed in the county were black.

Lori E. Brigham, president of Washington Regional Transplant Community, a nonprofit group that handles organ donation in the Washington suburbs, said "myths and misconceptions" often pose roadblocks to getting donors.

"People think that if I'm a donor, they won't save my life," she said, referring to anxiety that paramedics would choose not to aid people who are listed as donors on their driver's licenses.

Fossett said he encounters the myths whenever he talks about his 2002 life-saving operation. Some say the only reason he was able to get his new kidney was because he worked in the health-insurance field.

"These are things my friends have told me, relatives have told me," he said. "We really need education."

With a new Web site that launched this month, area organ donor groups are hoping more people will put their names on the list of donors.

The site, www.donatelifemd.org, lets people learn more about organ donation and how to sign up.

Because there is not a central database of donors, local figures on donor numbers are difficult to find. According to the state Motor Vehicle Administration, about 3.6 million people have volunteered to be donors on their driver's licenses.

The process can be rewarding, participants say. When Jeanne Ward's 19-year-old daughter Jessica of Washington died in her sleep from a seizure in 2003, the family agreed to let doctors use her organs for transplants. They learned later their daughter had already volunteered to be a donor on her license.

Today, more than 23 people have received organs and tissue from Jessica, and Ward is a staunch supporter of organ donation.

"It's hard to lose a child, but I know every day that something positive has come of this," said Ward, who said the process did not interfere with funeral arrangements or grieving. "Jessica was a loving and giving person. She always said she wanted to make the most of each day. What better way to honor her?"

In addition to covering all costs for the transplants, donor groups also provide free grief counseling to families for at least the first two years after a relative's death.

"Every month, they would send us a letter or call. And they seemed to know exactly what we were going through," Ward said.

Transplant workers advise people to let family members know about whether they desire to be an organ donor. When a person dies or is in a coma with little chance of survival, donation counselors are notified and come to ask relatives if they are willing to make a donation, said Cindy Speas, a worker for the transplant group.

"Whenever this happens, this is a difficult time," Speas said. "But it's better if a person has already talked with someone. And it's even better if the family is requesting it."

Health experts advise having a healthy diet and exercising regularly to avoid conditions that place people in need of transplant and to ensure that potential donor organs are healthy enough to help others.

"It's eating healthy, moving more," said Cherrel Christian, director for the diabetes center at Prince George's Medical Center. "These are lifestyle things. You can control those."

Family members are often the most compatible donors, but even people who are not related often find an intense connection with their donor.

Dalton Downs of College Park, a retired minister born with a heart defect, was told in 1995 that he had one year to live.

Downs, now 71, survived thanks to a heart transplant. A member of his congregation signed up to the region's organ donor list when she heard of his diagnosis. When she died a year later of a brain aneurysm, Downs received her heart.

To him, it's one of the most charitable acts a person can make.

"Your body is the house you live in," he explained. "It's the temple of your soul. After you die, you have no need of that temple anymore."

In addition to providing more information to people interested in donating organs, donatelifemd.org will soon serve as a central database for the process. Volunteers signing up on the site will be merged with state driving records this fall to create a comprehensive list of willing volunteers, Speas said.

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.