This February, the British Columbia and Yukon Branch of the Kidney Foundation of Canada are trying to make dialysis patients a little more comfortable, including right here in Prince George.
The Kidney Foundation recently found out that they had been selected as one of the recipients of the Aviva Community Fund's Small Idea winners for which they received $10,000 to purchase socks for every dialysis patient in the province.
A total of 50 grants were handed out in which the Warm The Sole campaign received one of the highest vote totals from brokers, community members as well as the public for the idea to win funding.
"A lot of patients, including my wife before she passed away, she was on dialysis and that was her complaint." Paul Ravelle, president of the Prince George chapter of the Kidney Foundation tells PrinceGeorgeMatters. "Your feet get cold because you're lying there for three hours and you're basically recirculating your bodies blood to cleanse it, so these machines take place of the kidney, filtering out impurities. So you're laying there and your blood is going through a cleansing process and some of the extremities - the fingers, the toes - they tend to get a little bit cold sometimes."
Prince George has two dialysis treatment centres: one at the University of Northern British Columbia Hospital and the Northern Independent Dialysis Unit at Parkwood Mall.
Treatments can also be done at home.
A total of 3,300 pairs of socks were purchased to distribute across B.C. to those undergoing dialysis treatment. The Kidney Foundation and volunteers will be delivering the socks over the next few weeks, with Prince George having their deliveries recently on Feb. 21-23.
But that isn't all. The Kidney Foundation of Canada also partnered with a company called Your City Sports for the manufacturing of the socks. They are donating an equal number of socks to the homeless in the Lower Mainland, which means 6,600 feet will be warmer.
"We've had really great feedback," Ravelle says. "You've got to have a pretty positive attitude. You're lying in a bed for three to four hours, three to four times a week. That's still 10-12 hours a week that you're sitting there so things like that, just the fact that you've got something you can keep your feet warm."
Dialysis removes waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building in the body while keeping a safe level of certain chemicals in the blood such as potassium, sodium and bicarbonate. The treatment is needed when you develop end-stage kidney failure, which is usually when you've lost 85 to 95 per cent of kidney function.
Some acute cases may only need dialysis short-term while chronic or end stage, you could need dialysis for the rest of your life.
“Campaigns like the Aviva Community Fund are successful over the long term because they directly fund local programs, where we also happen to work and live,” says Colm Holmes, president and CEO of Aviva Canada in a release. “As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, under the theme of bringing people together, we couldn’t be more proud to support ideas – big and small – that will have a lasting impact in their communities.”
