A silent killer ? chronic kidney disease ? is on the rise in America, and since 1955, the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland has opposed its rampage.
“Our mission is to provide services for renal patients and to fund research,” said Raquel McGuire, executive director of the foundation. “Our programs include patient emergency financial assistance ? for food, medicine, rent and treatment-related transportation ? and medical I.D. jewelry for all dialysis and transplant patients.
“We also provide free health screenings for the community, primarily in underserved areas,” McGuire added, “and about $270,000 a year for research.”
In funding its activities against a disease that, because of the kidneys? ability to quietly compensate for malfunction, often goes undetected, the 11-employee, $1.5 million foundation depends on local contribution, raising almost half its budget through its car donation program.
“If you have a car that you no longer want, you can donate it to us,” McGuire said. “And we will either sell it for scrap, or it will go to auction. Last year we netted about $450,000 from cars. It?s very lucrative for us.”
McGuire also said the nonprofit would host its 22nd annual fundraiser gala ? honoring kidney physicians Stephen Jacobs and Robert Montgomery and U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin ? at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor hotel Saturday.
“It?s a fantastic organization,” said Micki Misiaszek, a clinical science specialist with Genzyme Corp. “It strives to educate patients and health care professionals about kidney disease.”
“They provide a vital link between the dialysis community and the research establishment,” added Brian Nelson, a social worker with the Dialysis Corporation of America, “providing the resources that people may not otherwise have [for their treatment].”
McGuire, who encourages organ donation, estimated that almost 74,000 people nationally and 1,600 Marylanders await kidney transplants ? the results of a disease that now affects 16.8 percent of Americans over the age of 20, according to WebMD and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At a glance
National Kidney Foundation of Maryland
1107 Kenilworth Drive #202, Baltimore, MD 21204
443-322-0377; kidneymd.org
