Kidney Health for All

16th February: Equitable access of treatment to all, being theme of WKD 2024 we did a webinar on women with CKD with Dr S B Shefalika, (Obstetrician and Gynecologist) with nephrologist Dr Kristin George moderating the session. Between the patients’ Stephanie Wong and Merlyn Paul and doctors “Issues with menstruation, pregnancy, osteoporosis, hormonal changes and more” got captured with some guidelines for those with a transplant.

25th February: In Hiranandani Clubhouse under LIVED experiences Dr Nirvit Hase, Jupiter Hospital with over 40 as a nephrologist spoke of his first experience of a transplant. He shared insightful information and read out a poem composed by his patient Dr Aniket Hase explained how he brought focus on prescriptions and medicines to see if patients understood and followed prescriptions. Dr Vaibhav Keskar spoke on need for organ donation and Dr Pooja Binani spoke on her first experience with a patient from a small town. Patients shared their unique stories with some mistakes made. For the first time we included kids with a transplant so we had good energy with live music performances. The meeting also established a “KWF Thane Circle” for future work in this large district, a suburban of Mumbai.

1st March: Merlyn Paul launched a 14-day, 5K steps virtual kidney walk challenge with an award for those who met the target. There was an enthusiasm with many dialysis, post transplants, early CKD and donors participating. Apart from building their stamina, there was an endeavour to beat their previous day’s record. Participants clocked an average of 8k steps which gave them 112,000 steps during the period.

10th March: Rajasthan, our State Coordinator, Harsh Vardhan (also Founder of Kidney Patients Welfare Society)  organised a cricket match between doctors and post-transplant recipients to show life after a transplant can be normal.

On 13th March a kids’ painting competition was held for patients admitted to J K Loan Mother and Child Hospital, Jaipur. On 14th March award honoring the late Mr K R Sharma”Longest Kidney Transplant Survivor Award 2024″ was awarded to two people who survived 34 years with a kidney transplant, Mr Manoj Kumar Swain and Mr Subanna Gopinath were two selected for the year.

14th March: Madhab Chakrabarti, State Coordinator, West Bengal held an awareness walk in Kolkata’s busy street. Posters with information on kidney care, functions of a kidney, kidneys’ anatomy were carried.  It was followed by a screening camp for blood pressure and blood sugar. Dr Pratik Das explained the anatomy of the kidney and Dr D S Ray and Dr Arpita Roy Chaudhury, Vice President, Indian Society of Transplant spoke about kidney transplants, infections and managing kidney health.

14th March: In Gujarat, Ms Rajshree Meenakshi Dave, a social worker for KWF did awareness skits with kids and dance to encourage them to manage kidney health. 

14th March: Webinar on sporting events to summarise our world kidney day health and fitness initiatives.

15th March: Webinar with President of Indian Society of Nephrology Dr Sanjeev Gulati and Dr Amit Govil, from Cinncinati on Blood disorders such as anemia, why it surfaces in CKD patients and treatment therapies available.