March is National Kidney Month, which is a month-long, awareness-raising grassroots effort to spread the word nationwide about the importance of kidney health. A Pacific Northwest transplant family knows all too well the life-saving difference healthy kidneys can make.
The Blankenship family of Puyallup, Washington, assumed the role of transplant family with very little warning. Theirs is the type of story that strikes fear in parents’ hearts. Jennifer and Robert were thrilled to meet their first daughter, Sydney, and were excited to continue to expand their family when daughter Allison (Allie) arrived next -- quickly followed by Katherine (Katie) the next year. They felt blessed to be raising a trio of talented daughters and lovingly stepped into their family of five whirlwind.
But their lives literally turned upside down in the spring of 2005 when then six-year-old Allie was diagnosed with moderate to severe kidney failure. The news struck fear in both Jennifer and Robert and the family’s ‘new’ normal became something unexpected.
As Allie’s kidney disease progressed, Jennifer and Robert started meeting with the transplant team at Seattle Children’s Hospital. In late October 2007, upon a transplant social worker’s urging, Jennifer called the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) to learn more about fundraising for transplant-related expenses. COTA uniquely understands that parents who care for a child or young adult before, during and after a life-saving transplant have enough to deal with, so COTA’s model shifts the responsibility for fundraising to a community team of trained volunteers. COTA is a 501(c)3 charity so all contributions to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law, and funds are available for a lifetime of transplant-related expenses. On November 1st the Blankenship’s became part of the COTA Family.
After some time, the Blankenship family returned to their busy routines and the three sisters all experienced full childhoods. Jennifer was simply happy to embrace ‘busy’ and to live a somewhat normal life with one daughter who was post kidney transplant. However almost a decade after Allie’s transplant, a completely unexpected telephone call disrupted the Blankenship family’s ‘new’ normal once again
In March 2017 a COTA representative travelled to Puyallup, Washington, to work with new volunteers and to offer a ‘refresher course’ for those volunteers who had raised funds for COTA in honor of Allison B nearly a decade earlier.
Today, Allison attends Central Washington University where she is pursuing a degree in music education. She just recently sent her parents a message saying she had made the honor roll. Her hope for the future is to complete college, become a music teacher and be surrounded by good people while living a healthy life. Katie is finishing her senior year and has just applied to the University of Washington with a goal of helping others with her interest in psychology.
March is designated National Kidney Month to raise awareness about the prevention and early detection of kidney disease. In the United States, kidney diseases are the ninth leading cause of death. More than 30 million Americans have kidney disease, and many do not know it. There are more than 95,000 people waiting for kidney transplants, with close to 600,000 people in the United States suffering with kidney failure. More than 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month; 13 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant. Every 14 minutes someone is added to the kidney transplant list. You can visit www.RegisterMe.org to learn more about registering to be a life-saving organ donor.
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