Ken Sharp survives 32 years on dialysis

Ken Sharp survives 32 years on dialysis

Posted By FIONA ISAACSON EXAMINER HEALTH WRITER
Posted 11 hours ago

Peterborough kidney patient Ken Sharp celebrated surviving 32 years on dialysis yesterday as he continues his crusade for more Canadian funding and support.

"I feel mixed emotions. Pretty thankful to be alive but yet I would like to have the bioartificIal kidney," Sharp told The Examiner at a local bake shop yesterday.

Sharp, 52, has been on dialysis since Sept. 6, 1976 and has spent more than a decade trying to raise awareness about kidney disease and pushing for Canadian-funded research.

Patients on dialysis on average only live about 10 years, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Yesterday Sharp purchased a cake at Better Home Bakery in East City to celebrate this achievement but also to raise awareness that more needs to be done to help people with kidney disease.

Research is currently underway in the United States on a bioartificial kidney that can be implanted and a "renal assist device," a wearable device worn on a belt around the waist that provides continuous dialysis treatment. None are currently on the market. New technologies such as the

wearable kidney and bioartificial kidney will save Canadian taxpayers from dialysis and give patients a better quality of life, Sharp said.

"(Then) there will be money to fight other illnesses."

NOTES: Ken Sharpordered a white cake with raspberry filling because people on dialysis can't have chocolate because there's too much potassium.... He planned to bring the cake to dialysis today to cheer up of the patients.... Sharp goes for dialysis for four hours, three days a week at Dialysis Management Clinic on High Street.

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