Girl walks to help others

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This article was published 23/09/2019 (2309 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hailey-Ann Grant joined Sunday’s Kidney Walk in Brandon to help not only others living with kidney disease, but herself as well.

The effervescent five-and-a-half-year-old girl was born with polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder in which the renal tubules become structurally abnormal, resulting in the development and growth of multiple cysts within the kidney.

“She does not let that stop her at all,” said Hailey-Ann’s mom, Kristina Grant, as participants gathered at Westridge Community Centre for the two-kilometre walk.

“She’s slightly crazy and a giant ham.”

Grant said she learned about her daughter’s condition when she was 21 weeks pregnant with Hailey-Ann.

The cysts were discovered during an ultrasound.

“Since she’s been born, we go to Children’s Hospital a lot, a lot,” Grant said. “They monitor her kidney functions, they monitor the kidney growths, because they will just keep getting bigger as she grows and eventually her kidneys will fail and she will need a kidney transplant.”

The family has been participating in the Kidney Walk since 2014.

“We did the first four years in B.C., and with her dad being posted to CFB Shilo, we joined the Brandon Kidney Walk,” she said. “The Kidney Foundation in both B.C. and Manitoba have become like a second family to us. They’ve been a huge source of support and inspiration, and we’ve made some incredible friends in the kidney community.”

Hailey-Ann has a little brother, Wyatt, 3, who also joined the walk albeit in his stroller.

Marg Cashman, 71, joined the walk for the first time on Sunday. She, too, has kidney disease and is on dialysis three times a week.

She has been aware of the disease since February.

“I got real sick in January, and they discovered my kidneys had failed,” said the grandmother of four.

“I’ve always given to (the Kidney Foundation) but I never thought it would end up happening to me.”

“This event is so important for awareness and fundraising,” said Val Dunphy, executive director of the Kidney Foundation of Canada’s Manitoba branch.

“The pledges that are raised here today are used for our local patient programs, they’re used for our local prevention initiatives and, certainly, for research projects,” she said. “There currently is no cure for kidney disease.”

The only two treatment options are dialysis or transplants, Dunphy said, “so we’re looking for improvements to those all the time.”

She added, “We really do promote organ donation. There’s so many people waiting for a kidney, in particular, in Manitoba and across our country and the wait is desperately long.”

Every year, some 15,000 volunteers and participants gather at Kidney Walks in communities across Canada to raise awareness and funds for those affected by kidney disease.

More than three dozen people participated in Sunday’s walk in Brandon.

The Kidney Foundation of Canada’s cornerstone fundraising event helps support innovative and ground-breaking research projects and to offer crucial programs and services to the thousands of people living with kidney disease.

One in 10 Canadians has kidney disease, and millions more are at risk, according to the Kidney Foundation of Canada. The number of Canadians being treated for kidney failure has more than tripled in the past two decades.

Kidney disease is the 10th leading cause of death in Canada.

According to 2016 figures, Nearly 75 per cent of the more than 4,400 Canadians on the waiting list for an organ transplant are waiting for a kidney.

For more information, or to donate a kidney, go to kidney.ca/organ-donation.

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