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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on September 27, 2011, 11:09:33 PM
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Girl battling kidney disease getting help from bikers
WATCH Video: http://www.kget.com/news/local/story/Girl-battling-kidney-disease-getting-help-from/5etL9LflO0G1MQuOsdJpVA.cspx
Story Published: 9/26 11:20 am Share Updated: 9/26 11:32 am
When Bakersfield bikers heed the call for charity, they come in droves. Hundreds rode from Coronado Baptist Church to a barbecue at John Haddad's ranch off Round Mountain Road. "I've met a lot of bikers and everyone I've met have been awesome, I've met their kids and I mean they're great, great people."
It's all for this 10-year-old girl, Zoe Whipple. Zoe is battling a kidney disease and travels to Los Angeles weekly for treatment. "they sometimes have to poke me in my arm."
When Hells Angel rider, Mike Pena heard Zoe's family was having trouble paying for treatment he knew a fund raiser would draw hundreds of Hells Angels and motorcycle clubs from across the state. "Kern County we have a very, they're all together here and I just had to tell one guy and everybody said yes, no questions, everybody wanted to do it."
Some may say Zoe and Pena, make an unlikely pair, but these bikers are never too tough to have a heart for children. "When you see a Hells Angel and this little girl together, that is what this is all about, all these guys came to help out, we all have a heart just like anybody else," says biker Chuck Crash.
Spending four days out the week in a hospital is tough on Zoe, but one one afternoon, surrounded by people who care, this 10-year-old feels a-ok.
When Zoe was born she had complications and her kidney's never developed as she grew. Her mother donated her own kidney to Zoe, but the family expects she will need another transplant in seven years. The event raised $10,700 for Zoe.