The Kidney Coaching Foundation  

 

 

 

Posts Tagged ‘transplant’


A Word About Our Founder

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

In 2005, Deidra Hall founded what is now The Kidney Coaching Foundation, Inc (KCF).  Since she was a kidney transplant patient herself and had been since 1994, she saw a need to assist adolescence, between the ages of 12 and 21, with all stages of renal disease.  As an adult, she looked backed and realized that she did not have the support and people there to show her that life goes beyond her current situation – that was kidney failure.

At the KCF, it is our goal to do just this.  We aim to coach and inspire that life goes on and there is so much left to do.  It is ironic that in our goals, life can still be fragile.  In January of 2009, Deidra found out that her transplanted kidney started failing.  Throughout this year, she has seen the decline of her kidney function to the point where she finally had to start dialysis.

The beautiful thing about this time around is that she knows that life does not end and that from past experiences, she knows exactly what to do.  She will be getting a kidney transplant within the next couple of months, but this does not end the KCF.  In fact, this makes it stronger as the current turn of events refreshes the experiences of 15 years.

Life is learned by living it and experiences makes us stronger.  As a founder, we are proud to know that she can teach from her own lessons and that is something we cannot place a value can be placed.

  • Share/Bookmark

Written by: Antoine Hall

Inspirational Documentary Explores Kidney Patient’s Desire to Triumph

Friday, October 30th, 2009

You don’t come across very many films that focus on kidney disease and how it affects lives.  D tour is a documentary film that follows Pat Spurgeon, a rock musician on tour as he goes through daily dialysis treatments while he waits for a new kidney from a matching donor.  Here is a brief overview of the film and Pat’s story.  Pat was born with one kidney, which began to fail when he was in junior high school. He had a successful transplant at twenty-five but fifteen years later, that kidney began to lose function too.  Pat now needed a second transplant though he held onto his dreams of touring with his rock band.  Pat’s friend and director of the film Jim Granato followed him on tour. Three years and 80 hours of footage later, a story of hope, love, support, triumph and the importance of organ donation emerged. Pat seemingly displayed many of the qualities that Deidra discussed in the previous post. He was ready to fight and win – and sharing his story through this film is likely to inspire other kidney patients to do the same.

The film had two recent screenings in North Carolina. However, the film is scheduled to air nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens in November 2009. Watch the D tour film trailer on YouTube.

  • Share/Bookmark

Written by: Olympia Friday

PO Box 41272 • Raleigh, North Carolina 27629 • Privacy Policy
© 2005 - 2010 The Kidney Coaching Foundation, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Site Design & Maintained by AE Hall, WD2