World Kidney Day
Dear members of the renal community,
As you are aware, March is Kidney Month, and this coming Thursday, March 13th, is World Kidney Day. I know that many of you are involved in local activities and publicity this week, and I wanted to write and thank you all for the part you are playing in raising awareness about kidney disease, including the risks, the benefits of early intervention, and the good work you are all doing towards minimizing its impact on British Columbians.
I also want to share a few items with you. Click here to read the media releases we have sent out. The first was on February 29th, kicking off Kidney Month; the second on March 4th (International Women's Day) celebrating the women involved in various aspects of kidney care; and the remaining, sent today to specific community media publicizing local World Kidney Day activities. Working in partnership with your programs and the Kidney Foundation, we have received and responded to several media requests from these releases.
Finally, I also want to share the lovely announcement below, which was delivered by West Kootenay-Boundary MLA Katrine Conroy to the legislature last week. Ms. Conroy's message is a testament to the excellent - and much appreciated - work you all do every day, and to the commitment you have all made to kidney care.
Stay tuned - we will share more news about Kidney Month and World Kidney Day across the province towards the end of this month.
Thank you again,
Adeera Levin, MD FRCPC, Executive Director, BC Renal Agency
Kidney Health Month
Full transcript of Katrine Conroy's statement in the legislature:
For those of you who know my family, there are a number of health-related issues I could speak to, and most of those are just specific to my husband Ed and his amazing ability to keep on testing our medical system. March is Kidney Month, and this last November Ed started on another new experience: kidney dialysis.
The kidneys are the master chemists of the body, as vital to our health as the heart or lungs. If left untreated, kidney failure can lead to death within days. There are an estimated 145,000 British Columbians with undiagnosed kidney disease. As well, 2,400 people are on dialysis and 6,100 on predialysis.
Dialysis in this province is coordinated by the B.C. Renal Agency through regional centres. Ours is located in the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail. Three days a week those requiring dialysis make their way to the unit for a procedure that can take four to six hours, depending on extenuating circumstances. You can add a few hours' travel time, depending on where you live.
An initial reaction from people might be: "What a long time. That takes your whole day," or "I would have trouble with that." The reality is, though, that for those people being dialyzed, it is a fact of life, as routine to them as going to work is for us. Some of these folks will eventually end up with being able to dialyze in their own home, with great support from the local team. The technology that has advanced over the years allows people to even dialyze at night, ensuring a fairly regular life.
I want to take a minute to acknowledge the incredible team of people who work in the dialysis units across the province, but specifically those who do such an amazing job of keeping not only my husband healthy and happy but 40 other people from around the region, who all come three times a week. That's 120 treatments in six days.
So to the techs — Joe, Cheryl, Barry, Peter and Jim; the RNs — Kelly, Rose, Mary, Sharon, Kim, Margie, Melissa, Joanne, Theresa and Donna; and also to Tina, Maureen, Brit, Katy and Dr. Zhang — thank you from our family and everyone in our region, who are indeed fortunate to have all of you as part of our health care team keeping West Kootenay kidneys healthy and functioning.
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