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Dialysis Support Group celebrates 10 years
10 March 2010
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Staff from the RMH Nephrology Department and North West Dialysis Service joined with members of the RMH Dialysis Support Group today to celebrate the group’s tenth anniversary.
Led by Anita Narduzzo, the team of volunteers has raised more than $250,000, which has been used to provide comforts that significantly improve the treatment experience for people who spend hours, many times a week, on dialysis.
The support group provides patient comfort packs, which include back scratchers, jelly beans, hand cream and heat packs, and has also funded ice machines, special chairs and individual televisions for each dialysis chair at various centres.
The core group of 10 individuals understands the trauma and impact of kidney disease, dialysis treatment and the pressures placed on both patients and families. |
President Anita Narduzzo (second from right) and Dialysis
Support Group members with Prof Gavin Becker (centre),
Director of Nephrology and Clinical Director of
North West Dialysis Service, at the
tenth anniversary celebrations. |
Anita herself spent nine years having weekly dialysis until her kidney transplant in 1999. In the same year, her sister’s husband also had a transplant. Other members of the group have been carers, or experienced their family or friends’ struggle with kidney disease. . . all have a passion to make a difference.
The RMH Dialysis Support Group started in March 2000, with Anita the driving force and her family and friends forming an army of helpers. Their goal was to raise funds for the RMH Nephrology Department and its affiliated dialysis units, to be used to help make the restricted lifestyle of dialysis patients more comfortable.
“Having been on dialysis for nine years myself prior to my transplant, I decided to spend the time I would have been on dialysis each week by giving something back to the community and providing some better care to dialysis patients,” Anita said.
The activities of the group not only raise funds but also bring together communities and allow people to see and hear first hand just what it is like to have kidney disease. The group runs a very successful annual dinner, sourcing auction items, encouraging sponsors, bringing in clinical and/or motivational speakers, giving media interviews and providing patients with an eagerly anticipated celebration. The annual charity dinner is attended by 300 people and regularly raises in excess of $30,000.
Every fortnight, members of the team are at the RMH setting up their fundraising stall and working all day. Cooking demonstrations, film nights, shopping tours and raffles are other activities undertaken during the year.
Time is also spent liaising with the nephrology clinicians and health professionals to establish exactly what is needed for the patients and how best funds can be distributed to have the most positive impact. Anita and the team, using their own experiences, strongly advocate for practical and tangible benefits for the patient.
The Dialysis Support Group team received 10-year service certificates at the annual RMH Volunteers Christmas lunch in December.
There are more than 2,200 dialysis patients across Victoria. This rate is expected to rise over the next decade, with recent research suggesting a strong link between kidney disease and diabetes as a common cause of renal failure, leading to life on dialysis.
To contact the Dialysis Support Group, phone Anita on (03) 9419 3886 or go to the website at http://rmhdialysis.org.au/.
Media contact: Petrina Dakin, Melbourne Health Public Affairs 03 9342 2178
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