World Kidney Day 2018

Capping off TANKER Foundation’s World Kidney Day 2018 activities was a day of awareness, activity and fun for more than 250 patients with kidney disease and the staff of TANKER Foundation, an NGO that helps the underprivileged with kidney ailments. World Kidney Day (WKD) is a joint initiative of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations (IFKF).Latha Kumaraswami, managing trustee of TANKER Foundation welcomed the gathering at Madras Medical Mission College this Sunday. Kumaraswami, who is now a part of the World Kidney Day Steering Committee said the focus this year is on Women’s Health, stating chronic kidney disease affects approximately 195 million women worldwide and is the 8th leading cause of death in women.

 

The event was organized by Rajalakshmi Ravi, Head of TANKER’s Prevention and Awareness Programme to spread awareness of kidney disease and also create a sense of community between TANKER’s patients, their families and the staff at the NGO’s 6 dialysis units. Art director Jayashree Lakshminarayanan, who won a Kerala film state award in 2015 for her work on the film, Charlie was the chief guest. Lakshminarayanan, who has had a brush with kidney disease, spoke about making lifestyle changes with respect to exercise and diet to prevent future kidney-related ailments. 

 

A panel of doctors namely Prof. Dr N Gopalakrishnan, HoD of Nephrology at the Madras Medical College, Dr Georgi Abraham, nephrologist and founder trustee of TANKER and Dr Suresh Sankarasubaiyan, nephrologist, advised patients and their families in a special Q&A. Dr Gopalakrishnan also spoke specifically about women and kidney disease, stating gestational diabetes and untreated UTIs very often lead to kidney ailments. The Q&A was followed by an interactive quiz conducted by Guhan,a senior dialysis technician at TANKER. Following this, all medical talk came to a close and the patients, families, staff and trustees of the TANKER family participated in a lively dance and music session.