Today I welcome Maggie MacKenzie to Let's Talk About Kidney Kids. Maggie talks about being diagnosed with ESRD as she graduates college. She talks about the struggles of coping with her new disease and how having many different support people at various times helped her to positively cope and manage her disease.

April is Donate Life Month - a month that we bring awareness to organ, eye and tissue donation.

Todays guest is Naomi Mauro, a parent of child, Ethan, born into end stage renal disease. She is also the mom to Lucas and Mackenzie. She lives in the country in SW Washington with her husband, Chad. Today we talk a little bit about Ethan journey to transplant but the focus of todays episode is on organ donation. Naomi and her family experience deciding to pursue transplant as a treatment, awaiting for the call for a deceased donor and connecting with the family five years after transplant.

You can follow along with Ethan and the Mauro Family story through their facebook or instagram page.

According to Donate Life America, 1,900 children under the age of 18 waiting for a variety of organs, and more than 25% of them are under 5 years old. With the most children between 6-18 years old awaiting for a kidney transplant from a Deceased Donor, many more will never be listed as go strait to transplant with a Living Donor.. (https://www.donatelife.net/types-of-donation/pediatric-donation).

In this episode we also talk about Kidney Kids Connect, a program through NW Kidney Kids in which kidney kids 8-13 years old come together once a month on zoom to connect with one another. If you are interested in learning more about Kidney Kids Connect visit www.nwkidneykids.org or call/text (503) 893-5671 email info@nwkidneykids.org.

Dakota Watson is 20 years and diagnosed with VACTERL Association at birth. He has spent his whole life living with this syndrome and the medical complications that come with it. At 16 years old he received his first transplant.

The information in this episode is from the perspective of the interviewee and their own understanding of their disease and the medical terms that come with managing that disease. Please discuss any treatments, conditions with your own medical team.

This podcast is produced by NW Kidney Kids, a 501(c)3 serving children with CKD since 2006. To get more information about programs please visit www.nwkidneykids.org. Also, find us on social @nwkidneykids

The podcast Host is Jill Brown, we can connect at jill@nwkidneykids.org, LinkedIn, or Twitter.

More Information on VATERS Syndrome (AKA VACTERL Association): https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/vacterl-association/