Kidney Walk going virtual again this year, but participants encouraged and welcomed.--SUBMITTED IMAGE
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi
Hatters can lace up their running shoes and take part in the annual Kidney Walk, which will be held virtually by the Kidney Foundation of Canada for the second straight year due to the pandemic.
Walkers can run at a time of their choosing and join participants from Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan and Yukon at 11 a.m. for a virtual celebration. The YouTube video will include speeches from local partners and Kidney Foundation speakers.
“Everyone’s just doing it in their own community, they’re out there in their kidney walk event shirt advocating, raising awareness and fundraising for the Kidney Foundation and then we all tune in online and virtually celebrate together,” said Erin Birbeck, community relations co-ordinator for the Kidney Foundation’s southern Alberta branch.
Funds raised from the walk go to the Kidney Foundation of Canada and helps finance kidney research, valuable local patient programs, organ donation initiatives and more.
Birbeck says the success of last year’s virtual even has the foundation optimistic for this year and one local runner shares that thought.
Dawn McMaster has been involved with the walk for over five years and she is a kidney transplant recipient.
“I lost my kidneys to a really rare autoimmune disease. I was on dialysis for two years and then in 2009 I received a kidney from the live donor program. I got a new lease on life where I wasn’t reliant on dialysis,” said McMaster.
She says she will walk every year no matter the temperature and she will have people on dialysis right now and future transplant recipients on her mind.
“It’s very important because I was affected. I know what those people are going through and anything I can do to help them through it, that’s what I will continue to strive to do,” said McMaster.
She adds it’s nice that all the provinces can do the run on the same day virtually and she can walk knowing people in other cities are out walking for the same cause.
Kidney disease affects one in 10 Canadians and 45 per cent of new kidney disease patients are under the age of 65, according to the Kidney Foundation of Canada. In 2019 in southern Alberta, mostly in Calgary, about 2,455 children and adults were on dialysis with thousands more Albertans living with kidney disease.
Albertans can visit kidneywalk.ca to register, donate or for more information. Registration is free and participants who raise a minimum of $100 will receive a Kidney Walk package – including an event shirt.
