WHY I WALK

Kidney disease and the mission of the National Kidney Foundation is very personal to me.

As you know, my father Marvel "Mickey" Grierson suffered from kidney failure for 13 years before he was blessed with a kidney transplant. Five years after his surgery, my dad received awful news about his nonfunctional kidney having cancer. He kept the grieving news to himself for a little over a year and finally a month before my dad's second surgery, he disclosed the horrible information to myself, my mom and siblings.

Mentally, we dropped into a dark hole of pure worrying, but my dad was blessed for the second time and the doctors at HUP successfully removed my dad's cancerous nonfunctioning kidney.

We celebrated… We laughed… We beat kidney disease and Cancer!!

BUT…

On October 28th, 2020, all the celebrating I did for my dad came to an end and I fell into another deep dark hole. A day that should've been the happiest day for me and my husband Robert. It was a day filled with tears, a day filled with sobbing, a day I never want to experience again.

I was 18 weeks pregnant. Robert and I discuss if we wanted to know the sex of our unborn child. I told him I just wanted a healthy baby as we waited for the anatomy ultrasound. While waiting for the ultrasound tech, we decided that we didn't want to do a baby shower but we would plan a baby reveal at our home. We watched and listened as the ultrasound tech talked in a high-pitched jittery voice. She pointed out ten fingers and ten toes. We watched a fluttering little heart and also listen to it beat for a minute or two. The ultrasound technician was extremely excited for us, and then minutes later, her tone change. What we thought would be a magical moment, turned dark.

March 2021, Gi'ana, my youngest daughter was born with one functional kidney.

I immediately started feeling the same grieving feeling my father felt. A why me feeling… A why my daughter feeling…

Gi'ana was diagnosed with a right multicystic dysplastic kidney. Which is a condition in which the kidney has been essentially replaced by multiple cysts. It is the result of abnormal fetal development of the kidney. It was important for GiGi to be evaluated by her pediatric urologist after birth. Since the risk that the normal kidney may have an associated abnormality is as high as 51 percent. GiGi's first two years of life was frequently seen by her pediatric renal specialist because Gi'ana can't tell us if she was having any pain or if she could urinate or not. Watching my daughter cry when getting a catheter installed to collect a urine sample or even watching her get an IV placed is always brutal. I just want to take her crying and pain away.

GiGi is now 3 years old with one functional kidney. At her current age, she likes to explore the world by climbing, running and jumping. While she can still live a full life with one kidney. I find myself worrying daily because she has one kidney that we must protect and prevent any injury.

This is why I walk. I walk for my dad Mickey, and I walk for my daughter GiGi.

I walk because too many families (like mine) are coping with this devastating chronic illness, and thousands more will face an unexpected kidney disease diagnosis in the year to come. I walk to support the lifechanging work of the National Kidney Foundation:
- To ensure that families will have a place to turn when they need answers.
- To keep up the fight for policy changes to protect kidney patients and living donors.
- To drive innovation in transplantation and get more loved ones off the kidney transplant waitlist. Are you with me?

PLEASE CONSIDER SUPPORTING MY EFFORTS WITH A GENEROUS DONATION.

MEET ME SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27TH, 8 AM
PHILADELPHIA NAVY YARD
4747 S BROAD ST, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 19112