Bonding with State Legislators

The idea of meeting with state legislators to push for protections for living donors sounded a bit intimidating at first. I’d often emailed legislators and committee members, of course, and called my members of Congress about a national Living Donor Protection Act, but in-person meetings were a whole new ballgame. That’s what advocates do, though, right? So I took a deep breath and started calling representatives to whom I’d emailed information about a Living Donor Protection Act for North Carolina.

I called. And I called again. And then, amazingly, one by one, I started connecting with their warm and helpful legislative assistants, one of whom thought I was “awesome” for donating my kidney to my son 13 years ago. Little by little, I managed to set up meetings. I’d be joined by Dolores McGrath, a fellow living donor/NKF Kidney Advocacy Committee member, and Katey Cipriani of NKF Carolinas. It was starting to feel like a semi-official delegation.

For my first effort, I’m happy to report a reasonable success. The people we met were so pleasant and receptive to our “pitch” that the experience reminded me a bit of selling Girl Scout cookies when my daughter was a kid. Hardly a tough sell. Not really surprisingly, nearly everyone we spoke to had some direct or indirect connection to the topic.

After meeting with Rep. Willingham, we posed for a group photo. Left to right: Joe and Dolores McGrath, Rep. Willingham, me (dwarfed by everyone else!), and Katey Cipriani from NKF.

My representative, Verla Insko, wasn’t in town but we met her legislative assistant, whose brother is a nephrologist; he’s long been hearing stories of the critical need for public education about kidney disease. Another shared that the tragic death of a young woman she knew had saved several lives. Both she and her boss are ardent supporters of organ donation in general. Another has a mother with kidney disease–we compared notes about a beloved nephrologist my son saw years ago.

Rep. Shelly Willingham, who was at the legislature this week and was kind enough to give us a half-hour out of his busy day, said diabetes runs in his family. Fortunately, his diabetes is well controlled now, without needing to take insulin shots, because he “did everything the doctors told me to do.” Most people probably don’t know that that’s possible (I know I didn’t!). Diabetes and high blood pressure together account for three-quarters of the cases of chronic kidney disease, so when people with diabetes follow doctor’s orders, they’re also helping to prevent kidney disease.

We were joined by Dolores’s husband, her recipient, who also has diabetes. His kidney disease went undiagnosed for a long time, and by the time it was discovered, his kidneys were failing and he had to start dialysis. They both shared what a toll his years on dialysis had taken.

Although Rep. Verla Insko wasn’t in Raleigh, we met with Young Bae, her legislative assistant.

We were also glad to meet Margaret Martin, Rep. Michael Wray’s research assistant, and Pam Pate (not shown), Rep. Phillip Shepard’s legislative assistant.

Exchanging personal stories of health struggles and triumphs not only helps to raise awareness, it also creates bonds. We left feeling that we had made a true connection and sincerely believe we have the representative’s support. He plans to reach out to another legislator in a bipartisan bid to protect living donors in our state. We’ll be going back to the General Assembly when it reconvenes in January and are optimistic that we can make some real progress. (Still, I’d love to have a bite of Thin Mints now…)

A Cold But Successful Kidney Walk

This weekend my husband (Neil), son (Paul, my recipient), and I participated in our umpteenth National Kidney Foundation Triangle Kidney Walk [see my post on our long history of kidney walks], in Durham, NC. We were thrilled to learn that it set a record for donations: more than $97,000, with money still coming in. I think it broke another record, too–this may have been the coldest one (I know it’s the only time I’ve ever worn a winter coat over my Kidney Walk tee shirt).

Because of the damp chilly weather, the Walk organizers decided to shorten the route. What was supposed to be a 2.4-mile loop was reduced to just 1 mile total. True, my fingers were numb even before it was over, but we were still a bit disappointed.

It was long enough though to fall into conversation with a woman doing her first Walk. She’d driven all the way from the Pinehurst area because her mother had died recently from kidney failure, and she felt she had to do something. Like so many of us, she’d known very little about kidney disease before her mother started dialysis 4 years before. A few family members had planned to come along, she said with a little annoyance, but one by one they’d backed out. To her credit she came alone.

We talked about how little is known about kidney disease and how important it is to focus more attention on education in addition to research. We learned a startling statistic before the walk started: the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which is the main source of health-related research in this country, spends $568 per patient/year on cancer research. Kidney disease research accounts for…$29 per patient/year! I thought I’d heard it wrong and had to double-check before finalizing this post. And yet chronic kidney disease affects more than 30 million Americans. It’s yet another reminder of how important that new public awareness campaign is [see my previous post].

We saw lots of familiar smiling faces at the walk, many peering out from under wool hats. Friends from Donate Life NC/WELD (Women Encouraging Living Donation) were working a table this year. One of them, Dolores McGrath, a fellow NKF Kidney Advocacy Committee member, would be joining me for my first “official” visit to the state legislature this week. (More on that in my next post!)

That’s Dolores McGrath, center; and Deanna Kerrigan, Donate Life NC/WELD director, right.

Powerful Push to Promote Public Awareness of Kidney Disease

I’ve long been amazed and frustrated that most people know little about kidney disease and are unaware of the public health crisis: nearly 100,000 people in this country are waiting for a kidney from a deceased donor, and most will wait several years. For many, that’s too long, and thousands die every year because they didn’t receive a kidney in time.

That lack of information is widespread and includes educated, otherwise knowledgeable, well-informed people. Most of the 30 million-plus people in this country with chronic kidney disease don’t even know it yet, so if people paid more attention to their kidneys, and healthcare providers focused on early detection, kidney disease could be treated before it reached life-threatening kidney failure. Just think of the thousands—maybe millions—of lives that could be saved!

That’s why I was very excited to learn that the public awareness part of that amazing kidney health initiative just got some real teeth. The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is forming an important partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and American Society of Nephrologists (ASN) to promote the Public Awareness Initiative portion of what’s officially called Advancing American Kidney Health initiative.

Did you know that one-third of Americans are at risk for developing kidney disease, not only because of diabetes and high blood pressure, but also cardiovascular disease, obesity, and family history of kidney disease? For certain groups, particularly African Americans and Hispanics, the risks are especially high: African Americans are three times as likely as whites, and Hispanics nearly 1.5 times as likely as non-Hispanics, to develop end stage kidney failure.

Even for people who are not at increased risk, my family knows well that our kidney health should never be taken for granted. If you read my son’s post on this site on the anniversary of his transplant, you may recall that he developed his kidney disease from a lingering strep infection. He was young and otherwise healthy, but 5 years later he was on dialysis, and 2 years after that, I gave him my kidney.

The collaboration by HHS, NKF, and ASN will provide education about the risks of kidney disease and promote the early detection and management of kidney disease to improve patients’ results.

For more information on the partnership, the Initiative, and kidney disease in general, read the complete announcement here.