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A Medicine Hat family is encouraging people to become organ donors

May 23, 2018 | 5:46 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT – One in 10 Canadians is living with kidney disease, according to the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

In 2016, 747 Albertans were on the organ transplant wait list, 45 of them died waiting.

John Boksteyn is one of the people on the waitlist for a kidney transplant. He has polycystic kidney disease. It’s hereditary, as his mother and his brothers all have the condition.

“I get cysts on my kidneys and they actually kill the GFR, or your kidney function,” he explained.

John has been undergoing dialysis for the past two years and has been on the transplant wait list for four years. He goes to the hospital three times a week for four-hour dialysis treatments.

He and his wife Deidra have been participating in the annual Kidney Walk for several years. John’s father actually started the local chapter of the Kidney Foundation as his mom dealt with the disease.

“My mother, she actually had a transplant and it extended her life by 16 years and kept her off the dialysis machine,” he said.

This year John and Deidra are cutting the ribbon for the Kidney Walk on May 27th, and are walking in memory of John’s brother Dan, who died from complications from kidney disease.

The annual Kidney Walk is also a chance for families like the Boksteyns to raise awareness about kidney and organ donation.

“It’s a waiting game because people need to sign their donor cards,” Deidra said. “If they’re not signing their donor cards, that [donor wait list] does not move, everybody stays exactly where they are.”

“Somebody’s life will be changed,” said John. “You should have a pretty good feeling about signing that donor card, because if it comes to it, you could save up to seven lives.”

Deidra was hoping to donate one of her kidneys to John, but she wasn’t a proper match.

“So I had tested, at the final, they ask your family history and my dad had died of a stroke, so immediately I was not eligible,” she explained.

Several other family members and friends have also gone through testing, but so far no one’s been a match to donate.

“We do have somebody testing now, but we’ll have to find out later on down the road,” Deidra said. “It’s a long process, it’s six months of testing if not longer.”

While they wait, the Boksteyns remain hopeful and continue to encourage people to become donors.

“This is a good cause, we need to get behind this and you know, sign your donor cards and just do your part,” John said.

The Kidney Walk takes place at the Downtown YMCA. If you would like to help or make a donation, you can visit the Boksteyn’s Facebook page by clicking here, or visit the Kidney Walk website by clicking here.