My Story
26 October 2011Most children remember their first holiday, trip to the beach or birthday party, but my very first memory of my childhood is not a happy one...My name is Craig and I remember at the age of 3 ? years, sitting in a cold stainless steel bath at Auckland Hospital, in pain with tubes and monitors everywhere. I was scared and upset. I had endured a nine hour operation to remove my kidney, which had become the surgeonfs mission to save it as he felt he was able to. This is because I was born with an undiagnosed urinary tract defect and this went undiagnosed for three years and resulted in my left kidney becoming diseased. Unfortunately luck was not on my side after this surgery as I developed an allergy to the sutures used to close the wound, resulting in an open wound for an extended period of time and then an ugly scar after it finally healed. However, my second memory is a happier one. After two weeks of being bedridden, the doctors removed my drains and at last I was efree!f I ran down the corridor as fast as my legs could take me... and would have continued to run if it wasnft for my specialist who caught me in the act! If we then skip forward ten years to a routine check-up, an elevated blood pressure was detected and after twelve months of tests and a kidney function test late in 1990, my specialist concluded that my problematic kidney was again losing function and would have to be removed. In January of 1991, I had a second operation and this time the kidney was removed, with the added bonus of the removal of most of the ugly scar tissue which was the result of my first operation. Why Running: Well as you now know I developed a desire to run at a very early age. I loved to run and I can remember always looking forward to athletics days at school and loved it when it was cross country time. My parents entered my brothers and I in athletics competitions from a young age and I did pretty well especially in the longer distance events. Over time other things became important (like school work), but my passion for running was reignited in my late 20fs, where I started competing in triathlons (from sprint to half ironman distance events). My slender frame meant that running quickly became my strength across the three disciplines and more recently, I have taken on the challenge of the marathon! My goals: I want to show other kidney disease sufferers that life can continue as normal and you can achieve whatever you want if you put your mind to it. For the family members of people who have kidney disease and especially the parents of children who are about to have or have recently had kidney surgery, I want to reassure them that their child can live a healthy life post-surgery. Also, I want to show that through living a healthy lifestyle that involves exercise, adequate hydration and nutrition you can prevent or better manage the effects of kidney disease. Lastly, I want to raise money and the profile of Kidney Health New Zealand, an organisation that funds research into the prevention, early detection and cure of kidney disease, provides education and support in the recognition of the symptoms of kidney disease, provides resource information concerning the treatment and management of patients with kidney disease.