My father passed away in November 2021. He had numerous health problems, but one of the more prominent ones was his end stage kidney failure. He was on dialysis for years. At first, he started on peritoneal dialysis at home, but eventually had to switch to hemodialysis at a dialysis clinic.
His dialysis journey wasn’t an easy one, but we had a ton of support from his dialysis nurses and doctors. They quickly became like family, and I honestly don’t know what we would have done without them. And even though my dad’s fight is over and he’s at rest I want to continue to help the people that helped us. And the people who are fighting this terrible disease.
Dialysis isn’t an easy treatment. It is time consuming and it’s hard on the body. A lot of patients read to pass that time. Some clinics have books available to the patients that they get through donations. With the help of my church, I felt led to start a book drive. We started collecting gently used books in February and we have been blessed by the number of books that we’ve received. If even just one person finds a moment of joy in a story it will be worth it.
How To Help
But I’m not writing this to talk about our project. If you’re reading this blog, I would say there’s a good chance that you’re a reader yourself. And if you’re anything like me you have books collecting dust on your shelf that you know you’ll never read. Consider donating them to your local dialysis clinic. Give someone else a change to read them. But be sure to check with your dialysis clinic to make sure they’re accepting donations right then. Every clinic is different, and sometimes storage is limited.
Lastly, if you don’t have books to donate and you still want to help, The National Kidney Foundation is a great place to start. They accept monetary donations of all sizes. Even the smallest amount helps. They do an awesome job at researching kidney disease and advocating for kidney patients. Your donation will be put to good use, and it could change someone’s life one day.
Unfortunately, kidney disease is prevalent in our society. But there are ways that the book community can help. Let’s use our books for a cause.
Check out my last post here.
