Kidney Walk honours region’s kidney care pioneer, Tom Liu
WATERLOO — This year’s local Kidney Walk for the Kidney Foundation of Canada is dedicated to Dr. Tom Liu, who pioneered kidney care in Waterloo Region.
“Dr. Liu has done so much for kidney patients and their families throughout his career,” said Harvey Thomson, chair of the leadership team for the Wellington Waterloo & District chapter. “We really want to recognize his contribution.”
Liu started the kidney program at Grand River Hospital 40 years ago, when dialysis programs were only offered in big teaching hospitals.
He led a delegation to Queen’s Park to speak to health officials, securing funding to buy dialysis machines, hiring nurses and technicians to begin treatment in 1976, saving patients the long drive to Toronto for essential treatment.
Liu died of cancer last November. Although he was 73 and retired, Liu was still actively involved at the Kitchener hospital.
His legacy lives on at the renal dialysis unit, which was named after him at his retirement party in the spring of 2015. A plaque with Liu’s picture and a sign bearing his name was unveiled at the celebration.
“Not only did he found the dialysis unit … he also started the Kidney Foundation chapter in Kitchener,” Thomson said.
The Kidney Walk is an annual fundraising event for the foundation held in communities across Canada, with 37 in Ontario alone. The local chapter hosts five walks in Waterloo, Guelph, Stratford, Goderich and Owen Sound, and Thomson will join them all this year.
“It works out with my schedule,” he said.
The local walk is Sept. 24 in Waterloo Park, with registration at 9 a.m. and the walk starting at 10 a.m., followed by refreshments. Anyone can register to walk or donate.
The walks are important, Thomson said, because awareness of kidney disease and the foundation is low. “They not only raise money, but they also raise awareness.”
Money raised goes to research, support, and a manual on living with kidney disease that’s given out when a person is first diagnosed. Hospitals and clinics have distributed 6,000 manuals, along with more than 660 electronic versions.
“It’s always a tremendous shock for people when they discover they have kidney disease. It’s silent until it’s not,” Thomson said.
More than $110 million has been raised for research into kidney disease and its treatment since the Kidney Foundation was founded in 1964.
Liu’s daughter Marissa Liu-Glaister of Waterloo is gathering a team, including family members, to walk in her father’s memory.
Her first walk was last year alongside her father, just weeks before he died. “My dad was really involved,” she said. “It meant so much to him last year.”
And it meant so much to her when the foundation asked if the local walk could be dedicated to her father.
“I was just so touched,” she said. “It’s a lovely tribute. My whole family, we were all very touched.”
Find out more or donate at kidneywalk.ca.