From Bowling Green Daily News, by Simone Payne
Inaugural race set for Memorial Day
Polycystic kidney disease has run in Ryan Dearbone's family for years and he decided a year ago that he wanted to raise money and awareness for research to cure the disease the best way he knew how: through a race.
Dearbone is hosting the first Jackrabbit Jog 5K & Relay at 8 a.m. at Kereiakes Park on Memorial Day in memory of his mother, Alfreda Thompson, who passed away April 9 from heart issues that were a direct effect of PKD, he said.
"It was already something I was involved in and wanted to help because of my family," Dearbone said. "Now that my mom has passed away it's become my mission. PKD doesn't affect everybody, but for those it does affect, it affects us in a big way."
PKD is a genetic disorder that causes numerous cysts to grow in the kidneys. PKD cysts are different from the usually harmless “simple” cysts that often form in the kidneys later in life. PKD cysts are more numerous and cause complications, such as high blood pressure, cysts in the liver and problems with blood vessels in the brain and heart, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Dearbone's wife, Bonita, said she was excited when her husband told her he wanted to host a race to raise awareness for PKD in memory of his mother.
"That was his goal because not a lot of people know about PKD," she said. "Just to bring awareness out to people that was more exciting than anything. After his mom died, it's put on a new meaning."
Through his many roles in serving the community by being on the City Code Enforcement and Nuisance Board, Chairperson for the MLK Jr. Day Planning Committee and communications chairperson for the NAACP, Dearbone was able to secure several sponsors for the race including Franklin Bank and Trust, Houchens Industries, Trax Running, Bike Rack Bistro, Papa Murphy's, Liberty Imaging, Body by Bonita, 823 Enterprises, D93 Radio, WNKY, Doug Frint of RE/MAX, Road ID and the PKD Foundation.
Bike Rack Bistro owner Patrick Folker has been good friends with Dearbone for many years and knows how close he was to his mom. Folker had never heard of PKD and definitely thinks the word needs to get out about this disease, he said.
"Ryan and Bonita, they’re runners and they’re known locally for running and I think it’s just a part of Ryan," Folker said. "5Ks are really popular and it’s just fitting that he would put on a 5K to raise awareness for PKD."
Participants can register for the run/walk online at the Jackrabbit Jog 5K facebook page by clicking on the active link in the "about" section or wait to register in person the day of the race for $30 or $80 for a four person 5-mile relay. The price includes a T-shirt and a chance to win several door prizes such as a suite for a BG Hot Rods game for a group of eight, gift cards from ROAD ID, two free memberships to Bowling Green Parks and Recreation and restaurant gift cards. [Read more]
From Herald Argus, LaPorte, IN
The eighth annual Cruis’n For a Cure For PKD will be held Sunday, beginning at the La Porte County Fairgrounds.
“Cruis’n For A Cure is our first major event of 2016,” said Laura Moyer, event chair. “We will be cruising in cars, trucks and motorcycles – antique, new, used and unique wheels are all welcome to join us for a car show and 40-mile car cruise."
The cost is only $10 per vehicle to participate in the even. Proceeds will be donated to the Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Foundation.
The Cruis'n For PKD is very dear to Coordinator Laura Moyer and her family. Laura received a kidney transplant on Dec. 9, 2011 and her sister Debbie the year before. PKD runs in their family — 15 of their immediate family have this life threatening kidney disease. That is why fundraisers like the cruise, as well as the PKD Walk each year in September, raise awareness and money for research.
The cruise is expected to have more than 500 participants. They will be able to show off their ride and enjoy the concessions available at the fairgrounds, as well as a silent auction from Blue Chip Casino, Hotel & Spa, Four Winds Casino.
A drawing will be held for prizes such as oil changes, car cleaning supplies, and many more wonderful gifts sponsored by Root Funeral Home. Dash plaques will be given to the first 100 vehicles. Judges will pick their favorite top three and a trophy will be given.
Other sponsors include the La Porte County Fairgrounds, Root Funeral Home, Scotty’s Dynamic Design, Miller’s Port-A-Pots, Starbucks, Kreamo Bakery, La Porte Chrysler, VFW La Porte Men and Women Auxiliary, The News-Dispatch, The La Porte County Herald-Argus, Harbor County News, Family Express, Meijer, Sams Club, M.C. Auto, and Blue Chip Casino, Hotel & Spa and Four Winds Casino.
Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a genetic, life-threatening disease that causes people to develop kidney failure, forcing them to depend on dialysis or a transplant to live. Thanks to the PKD Foundation’s critical support, the development of new drug therapies offer help and hope to the 12.5 million people world-wide suffering from the disease. One in 500 Americans have PKD.
Lineup and registration begins at the LaPorte County Fairground, 2581 W. Ind. 2 at noon and ends at 2 p.m. The cruise begins at 2:30 p.m. sharp — rain or shine — and travels 40 miles throughout La Porte County. No pre-registration is required.
Kidney Donation
The 52-year-old Portugal Cove-St. Philip's man is the fifth generation in his family to suffer from polycystic kidney disease.
It's a disease that affected King's livelihood and forced him to sell off his all of his livestock in the last few years.
"I was really struggling," he said.
"Years ago, I didn't mind the work, I could fly through it. After I was affected with this disease, work just became too hard and I had to slow down."
Dialysis was an option, one that King had started, but he said the ultimate cure is a new kidney.
'Lifeline to a drowning man'
That's when his buddy Nathan Dennis stepped in.
Dennis is a 28-year-old farmer from Picadilly on Newfoundland's west coast, and offered to help in ways that no farmhand ever could.
He called King's wife, Daphne, and asked what she thought of the idea of a kidney donation.
"It's like throwing a lifeline to a drowning man," Dennis said she told him.
It's one thing to offer up a kidney, it's another to see if it would actually be a match.
"I guess the odds were in our favour in this particular case," Dennis told CBC Radio's On The Go.
Multiple tests later, the two were matched and the pair then travelled to Nova Scotia for the transplant. [Read more]
Jeff West, his kidneys failing, was dreading having to quit his job and spend years tethered to a dialysis machine. But shortly before treatments even began, the Boynton Beach man received an unexpected gift — a kidney donated by a volunteer whom he had never met.
It happened through what's called a transplant chain: a set of surgeries, stacked like dominoes, that depend on people willing to literally give a part of themselves to someone they don't know.
A growing trend in kidney donation, the coordinators of transplant chains say they aim to get kidneys to more renal patients, and do it faster. They also say they can sometimes make better medical matches than through traditional one-on-one donations between friends or relatives.
They do it by signing up hundreds of renal patients and their loved ones who are willing to donate to them but are incompatible due to blood type or other issues. These programs then use sophisticated computer software to generate new donor-recipient pairs between strangers.
It's sort of like medical speed-dating. The bigger the dating pool, the better the chances for a great match. And chains involve live kidneys that have a much longer potential life span than a deceased donation.
"It can open up an option for a kidney that people otherwise might not get," said Michael Spigler, vice president of patient services and kidney disease education for the American Kidney Fund.
West's chain started in December when Heather Sherman, a 41-year-old software support technician from Jacksonville, agreed to donate to anyone in need through the nonprofit National Kidney Registry. That person ended up being a 47-year-old mother of two who received Sherman's donation on Dec. 9 at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
West's transplant happened a month later, at the end of the chain, when he received a kidney removed from a 53-year-old anonymous person in Atlanta and flown to South Florida.
In between was a tightly choreographed dance involving five hospitals in five states, eight recipients and donors, kidneys being flown or driven hundreds of miles — and four lives saved, or even more when you consider those successful transplants moved other people up on wait lists.
"It literally gave me my life back. It's a reaffirmation that there still is good in the world, that we can impact others in a positive way," said West, 52, still emotional four months after his successful surgery at Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston. Sherman's kidney also was removed there.
It was the first time Cleveland Clinic Florida — one of nine Florida hospitals certified to do living kidney transplants, and one of two in the state currently affiliated with the registry — had participated in a chain. It's an emerging option for people with serious renal disease who, depending on their blood type and medical condition, could wait five years or more for a lifesaving donation.
West, who loves his job as a technical representative for a heating and air-conditioning manufacturer, said his doctors had told him last spring he would wait at least two years for an organ and probably could not work as his kidneys deteriorated.
"I accepted my career was over, although I thought dialysis would be like a death sentence," said West, who has genetic polycystic kidney disease. "Then suddenly, they said: 'We have a donor for you. Are you available in January?' I was blown away." [Read more]
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