SIBU: The Sibu Kidney Foundation (SKF) will organise a series of activities in conjunction with next year’s World Kidney Day.
These activities include Kidney Ride on March 1, colouring contest on March 8, health talk on March 14 and kidney run on March 15.
SKF chairman Temenggong Vincent Lau said the theme for World Kidney Day will be ‘Prevention to Detection’ while SKF’s slogan for the celebration will be ‘Drink More Water for Healthy Kidney’.
“The celebration is to create awareness among the public on the importance of taking care of their organs and in this case, the kidney, as it is an important organ in our body,” he said at a press conference yesterday.
Lau said if everyone made an effort to look after their health, including their kidneys, then the chances of kidney failure would be greatly reduced.
“While SKF is providing dialysis for kidney failure patients, we are also educating people on how to look after their kidneys. We go to schools and organisations to give talks.”
On the run, he said this would be the second time it is organised.
“We are targeting 1,500 people and aiming to raise RM50,000 which will allow us to buy more dialysis machines.”
Lau said the number of people suffering from kidney failure, including young people, was increasing.
“We have 70 patients and there are a number of people on the waiting list for kidney dialysis at our centre. By next year, we are expecting the number of patients to increase to 85.”
The centre runs dialysis sessions every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday but with the increase in patients, it will have to operate on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday next year.
Among those present at the press conference was SKF manager, Ivy Lau.
