Dorothy Miller dies at age 70
Community mourns loss of avid kidney foundation volunteer Dorothy Miller
Hours after hearing the news that Dorothy Miller had died, hundreds of messages and phone calls immediately began pouring in for the family.
Hours after hearing the news that Dorothy Miller had died, hundreds of messages and phone calls immediately began pouring in for the family.
“We were just blown away,” her son, Tony Miller, told The Telegram. “To see the impact she had on other people was just unbelievable.”
Dorothy Miller — fondly known as “Dot” — died July 15 due to complications from kidney failure.
The 70-year-old left a huge mark on the community, especially for her tireless work in the province for the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Atlantic division.
For more than 35 years, she worked tirelessly as a volunteer with the foundation, raising more than $100,000 in a 10- to 12-year period.
From going door-to-door and organizing various functions, including bowl-a-thons and walk-a-thons, to drumming up corporate donations and collecting prizes, Miller’s work was instrumental in helping raise awareness about kidney disease and helped the foundation help others affected by it.
“Mom was non-stop. She was the strongest person I’ve ever known,” Tony said.
Dorothy’s volunteer work began in the 1970s after she discovered kidney disease was in her family and her sister, Janet, underwent a kidney transplant.
At age of 50, she was struck with the disease as well and had to undergo dialysis three times a week.
Yet, she didn’t let it slow her down.
“It’s a setback to your everyday life, but she never gave up volunteering right to the very end and continued to put everyone else first,” said Tony, who often joined his mother fundraising throughout the years.
“Her perseverance, her sense of humour, her determination, her drive and her passion for wanting to find a cure and help others, along with her dealing with the disease herself, was something the whole family has been proud of.”
When her youngest son, Randy, collapsed while working at Bull Arm in 1994, stricken with kidney disease, and needed a transplant, it made her all the more driven.
Also a volunteer and active member of the Church of the Ascension, she was nominated several times for Mount Pearl’s Citizen of the Year and, in 2012, was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, federal recognition for outstanding contribution to the community.
“But she never looked for praise,” Tony said. “She never asked for anything in return. All she wanted was to make other people’s lives better.”
And she did, said Trina Ralph, the foundation’s Atlantic branch executive director.
“Dot was a tremendous asset to the foundation. She was passionate about organization awareness, and inspiring fundraising, and was such a strong person,” said Ralph, who spoke at the funeral.
“She became one of my nearest and dearest friends.
“We are all better because of her.”