Hall Carter, Executive Director of the Mississippi Kidney Foundation spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the Club’s September 3, 2019 meeting. She spoke about the Foundation and its goal to assist and aid kidney disease sufferers. Per their website, “the mission of the Mississippi Kidney Foundation, chartered in 1965, is to serve Mississippi kidney patients by providing quality programs and services, to provide public education and screening to promote the prevention of kidney disease, and to promote organ donation throughout the state.”
In her talk, Ms. Carter discussed some of the causes and effects of kidney disease. The two most prevalent causes were diabetes (types 1 & 2) and high blood pressure. The effect is that people with kidney disease must undergo dialysis several times weekly. She also said that kidney disease requires a 4 hr. dialysis treatment and that many patients are unable to continue working because of the time commitments for dialysis. Per Ms. Carter, African-Americans have a much higher incidence of kidney disease than other racial groups.
The MS Kidney Foundation holds several fundraising events annually, including the Uptown Drawdown in the spring and a 5 k walk in early fall. The details of the 2019 5k walk from the Foundation’s website are as follow:
The Kidney Walk will be held on Saturday, September 28, 2019, with registration at 8:30 a.m. and the walk beginning at 9 a.m.
The 5k route runs through the Fondren neighborhood in Jackson, MS. The 2019 Kidney Walk will start and finish at Fondren Church – 3327 Old Canton Road, Jackson, MS, 39216.
The Kidney Walk is dedicated to the memory of Michael Rubenstein, a kidney transplant recipient. Thanks, Rube!
The 2019 Uptown Drawdown was held on March 2, 2019, at the Country Club of Jackson. The next event will be February 29, 2020, again at the Country Club of Jackson.
The Foundation will also be holding screenings in September. On September 7, one will be held in Pascagoula and one will be held in Jackson on September 21 at the Medical Mall.
We thank Ms. Carter for her talk, for her service to the citizens of Mississippi, and for her willingness to pinch-hit for our originally scheduled speaker who had a death in his family. She is shown in the following photo. Rotarian Matt Monsour, who is president of the Mississippi Kidney Foundation introduced her.
