I live with my Husband in Kelowna. and we are both retired. I have 3 children who are all married. I enjoy walking, and cooking italian food. I woorked for 20 years for the church in the housekeeping department until I had a quadruple bypass. I live a healthy lifestyle and eat healthy foods. I would be really happy to have a gym membership sponsored through your foundation so I can swim and strengthen my legs.

At age 28 my husband committed suicide, six months later I came down with severe systemic Lupus, it attacked my heart, kidneys and blood. The Doctors basically told my family to say good- bye. Then what one might call a near death experience I realized that I had a choice to live – after that I started to slowly recover. While I did get myself off the heart transplant list, my kidneys could not seem to come back. So I went to peritoneal dialysis for three years and hemodialysis for another year when I received my mother’s kidney! I have had the transplant now for six years. Presently, I feel healthy and grateful. Right now I have started my own business as an energy medicine practitioner- it is new and defiantly demanding- but I would like to give back to the renal community in some way- financially things are tight I would appreciate any help to get in better physical shape.

My name is Bill (67 years old) and I am a retired firefighter following 34 years of community service. Due to undiagnosed diabetes and renal failure, I am now a double amputee. I have been on peritoneal dialysis for the past 6 years. I am currently enjoying good health and have joined a six week program at the local fitness center here in Victoria, BC. I would like to continue this program but it is very costly I have been encouraged to apply for a grant to help with the cost. My wife and I have been married for 43 years, have two adult children and one grandchild. We look forward to the future and to enjoy some healthy years with family activities and do some traveling once I regain my strength. Thank you for the consideration of my grant.

My name is Jim and up until the age of 50 I had lived with fairly good health.  I had only spent 3 days in a hospital.  That was for tonsil removal and I was 27!  I had not even been born in a hospital but rather at home.  Family in attendance was the priority in those days.

The age of 50 was a defining mark.  Shortly after my 50th birthday I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.  Then came high blood pressure. However life went along quite well.  In 1995 I got the word that some thing was going very, very wrong! After my yearly check up that year I was told I had some "liver problems". There was three years of tests, consults and more tests. Something was wrong but no one knew for sure. On February 9, 1998 I was admitted to hospital in a coma which was to last for 9 days.  This resulted in a liver transplant on Fathers' Day 1998. End of story? Not quite.

From the time of the liver trans-plant my creatin numbers had been a little off. No one paid too much attention to it. The liver worked, I was able to get up and around and I was feeling optimistic. I should make reference to my post trans-plant period.

Fear and despair are the two of the worst  feelings I have ever had to live with. On the one hand I had a life, a miracle! On the other I could not walk, I weighed 110 pounds, I had no sense of taste and depended on my daughter for everything. It was like this huge hole had just opened up and taken my entire life away. The rest of my family was as helpful as they could be. My son and grandchildren visited as often as they could but no one could crawl inside me and fill that hole. Then I met my yellow cab driver who appeared one morning to take us to the hospital. He was very polite and very talkative.

As  we drove he started to talk about how nice a day it was. I hadn't noticed! He talked about the flowers in a garden we had passed close to where I was staying. I had no idea they were there. Memory escapes me as to all the references he made to the beauty all around and how all we had to do was look. I started to look!  I watched a program a while back on TV where the fellow was saying, " When you change they way you look at things, things change." I did not realize it back then but that is exactly what had  started to take place. So here we are today 2006.

In January of this year (2006) I entered hospital with an ear infection. A couple of days, right? Not quite. I was there for the entire month and the end result was that I was diagnosed as having  chronic renal failure! I was devastated. This could not be happening again. I had been through all this and it should have been clear sailing. All I could think of was going down that dark road again and at 68 it seemed insurmountable. Then I remembered my cab driver. "Look around Jim, life is worth the effort. There are still things you can do." I have been blessed with a very supportive doctor. On our second visit I said to him that I was not going to just lay back and exist. His response was let's try home dialysis. We went for it. I have been blessed with a loving and supportive partner who is with me all the way. My daughter, who was with me through the liver trip, now, has two children of her own and we spend as much time as we can with them. As I write this it is the second day of doing my hemo dialysis at home. I had a very wise and philosophical friend who once told me that nothing is as bad as we imagine it to be and in each of us is a spirit waiting to rise to what ever occasion we may require. Reflecting on that I believe it is true. It is never too late to sing your own song and dance your own dance- it is the spirit in us. Besides, you never know when you may get a ride from an angel driving a yellow cab.

I was playing in an Under-19 rugby game for the Burnaby Lake Rugby Club.  I unfortunately suffer a sprained ankle.  That was the same day as my birthday. 

Then, over the course of the week, I noticed that the swelling wasn’t going away.  I’ve had sprained ankles before and the swelling goes away within 3 days or less.  All that swelling began to worry me, so I go to see my family doctor and get some blood tests.  This was not exactly the belated birthday present I had imagined: a diagnosis of renal failure.  I was admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital of Vancouver immediately.  After more testing, it is revealed that I have end-stage chronic renal disease, in the form of IgA nephropathy.  The next step was to try and remove as much of the accumulated fluid through dialysis treatments.

So for a period of time, I stayed in hospital for dialysis.  After I was discharged, I continued to make trips to the hospital 3 times a week.  The doctors always told me I was a great candidate to do dialysis at home in the form of peritoneal dialysis.  I liked the idea.  So I decided to try that.  Everything was going great for me.  I returned to my old diet and had more freedom in my days to do things that I loved, like staying fit.  For about 8-9 months, it was great.  Then I started noticing that my health began to deteriorate.  I wasn’t getting good dialysis anymore, started to accumulate fluid again, and my blood pressure escalated.  It became so high that it eventually led to a seizure.  That would be the end of peritoneal dialysis for me.  It was a scary thing to go through.  I still don’t remember what I was doing before the seizure.  Only family members can recall the frightening incident for me.

After the seizure occurred, I was back on hemodialysis 3 times a week.  It was the same routine as before.  I hated being in the hospital setting even though it was probably the safest place to be.  I know I wanted a little bit of my freedom back like when it used to be on peritoneal dialysis.  They offered me a transfer to a local community dialysis unit.  I would still need to do hemodialysis, but the upside is that I was able to care for myself a little bit more.  I was taught how to set up my own machine and set the supplies to assist the nurses before they put me on.  I remained there for about 2 and a half years.

By this time, the home dialysis program in British Columbia began to grow.  I figured this was as good a time as any to finally go home for self-treatment again.   The transition could not have been any smoother.  The training was great.  I believe my previous experience with dialysis really sped up the training time for me.  By June 2006, I was able to go home and actually start.  Currently, I am doing nocturnal dialysis roughly 4-5 times a week, with an extra day as a buffer just in case I need it.  I have no complaints about home dialysis.  I think it's the best option for patients other than a transplant.  It absolutely gives you the freedom you need to keep the day open for your desired lifestyle.  For me, that is to attend school.  By doing dialysis at home, I am able to transfer the time spent for travel to and from the dialysis unit into time for studying and homework.