A Boston AIDS activist who had hoped to receive a lifesaving transplant with a piece of her brother's liver learned last Thursday that her sibling's organ is not a suitable match. Now Belynda Dunn must wait as long as a year for a donated liver. "I am disappointed, but not daunted," Dunn said. "I am very grateful to my brother for offering to be a donor, and optimistic that God still has plans for me here."

Earlier this month, Dunn received the green light for the transplant when the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said it would perform the expensive operation after a down payment is made. The medical center's Thomas E. Starlz Transplantation Institute requires a down payment of about $208,000. So far, Dunn has paid about $200,000 from a fund raised for the transplant. Once the additional $8,000 is available, Dunn will be placed on a waiting list for a liver from a cadaver, hospital spokesperson Lisa Rossi said. Dunn, 49, has hepatitis C and HIV. Dunn's doctors have told her she could die within months if she does not get a transplant.

Dunn is credited with organizing Boston's black churches in the fight against AIDS. She is an HIV prevention manager for the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and is president of the National Association of People Living with AIDS.

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