Kidney Foundation announces renal patient holiday

[okarol]

Kidney Foundation announces renal patient holiday

By Jeff Labine, tbnewswatch

The Kidney Foundation of Canada is going to host the first northern renal camp for next year.

The announcement was made at BBQ for kidney patients and renal staff on Saturday. The camp holiday is at the Wilderness Discovery Camp on Shebandewon Lake. It is the first camp for dialysis patients in the north.

Lisa Cashin, coordinator for the Northern Superior Chapter of the Kidney Foundation, said $7,000 in total is going towards the camp. The Kidney Foundation is giving $2,000 and the Thunder Bay Metro Lion’s Club is donating $5,000.

"It is a way for them to get out and do something they wouldn’t normally do," said Cashin.
"We’ve got this beautiful northern wilderness why not use it?"

There is a camp in southern Ontario for kidney patients but the cost of flying to Toronto and renting a car for a family of four is unreasonable, said Cashin.

The holiday is free for kidney patients including travel to the camp. Cashin said it would be three days out of the week for patients to come. There are approximately 1,300 renal patients that could go to the camp but the camp can’t handle all of them at once. Cashin said it depended on the families on how many could actually come to the camp next year.

"We haven’t gotten all the details yet," she said. "It depends on the size of the families (whether) it is a family of four or a family of eight. We have to wait till next August."

Leonard Lesnick, 82, has been a renal patient since last October and doesn’t go on vacations anymore. He was eating at the BBQ with friends and family and not yet heard about the renal camp holiday. He said he would like to go to a camp holiday.

"I suppose (I would go). Why not?" said Lesnick.

The camp will be held on Aug. 14 2010 for two three-day sessions over the week.

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/News/?cid=61973

[Rerun]

Canada has it all.  Let's all move there!!!

                         

[monrein]

The Camp Dorset Program here in Southern Ontario has been great for many many families.  That was one of the programs set up and funded by the Kidney Foundation's Patient Support Committee which has set up a number of valuable services for patients.  A peer support program is another one, through which patients or family members are hooked up with someone in a similar situation for peer support as they go through the process. 

Things aren't perfect here, and I don't believe they are anywhere, but I'm staying put.