April 25th 08 - Kidney disease and dialysis - Our guests for this show were President and founder of Focus on Health Mrs Ruby Fleming, her husband Mr. Osbourne Fleming, Mrs Lilian Caesar Sutherland, member of MOTTEP and Mrs Rose Fleming, retired Dialysis nurse.
MOTTEP is the Minority Organ/Tissue Transplant Education Program to educate people of color about the need for organ/tissue donation. Mrs Sutherland is very passionate about spreading the word on healthy lifestyles and eating well. She joined MOTTEP to help others, only to find herself facing the fact that her own husband was a patient for a kidney transplant. In her opinion God was grooming her to face the issues which would rise up in her own life.
Mrs Ruby Fleming as the founder of The group Focus on Health was also passionate about spreading the word on kidney disease and dialysis. She had to deal with the realization that her husband was dealing with kidney disease and he required a kidney transplant.
Mr Osborne Fleming was very open about his ordeal in dealing with kidney disease and listeners got to share in his story. From the moment he first began getting symptoms to his first experience with getting dialyzed to getting a donor and also the moment when the operation was done for him to receive the transplant.
The cost factor of Dialysis treatment which can easily run into the thousands was mentioned and Mr Fleming who is also Anguilla's Chief Minister was proud to state that Anguilla has an up to date and functioning dialysis unit at the local Princess Alexandra Hospital. He urged other island governments to do the same for their people since statistics show that diabetes prevalence was high among island residents. Kidney disease can often be an end result of diabetes and hypertension.
Mrs Rose Fleming spoke from her experience as a retired Dialysis nurse and about the seriousness of kidney ailments. She and all the guests urged listeners to take care of their health, and to be aware of the foods consumed since as we all know this can have a direct effect on health. They mentioned the frequent eating of fried foods and having a sort of lackadaisical attitude towards personal health as attitudes to change in the quest to maintain healthier lifestlyes.
The guests were inspirational and gave listeners lots of things to think about. Much was learnt from this show and we thank all the guests for their cooperation in spreading the word on kidney disease and reaching out to the community.