Founder thrilled as support group marks tenth year
KDARS TO HOLD SPECIAL SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING
A GRIMSBY mum did not know where to turn when her baby daughter suffered acute kidney problems after a traumatic birth – so she set up her own support group.
Heather Davis and her husband, Steve, founded KDARS For Kids, to help families with babies, toddlers and young children living with chronic kidney disease and renal issues. Tomorrow, the group marks its tenth anniversary.
Heather said: “To say we started with just five people and now have 2,240 members, KDARs has grown beyond anything I could ever have dreamed off. It started in and is still based in Grimsby and it’s gone global.”
A special service of thanksgiving is being held at the church of St John & St Stephen & Shalom, in Rutland Street, Grimsby, on Sunday, at 10.30am. It is hoped Bishop Stephen, Bishop of Lincoln, will be in attendance, and there will be a celebration buffet after. Heather said: “It’s been an incredible journey, with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns.
“My daughter is doing okay – she is a remarkable young lady who doesn’t want her kidney condition to define her.”
Some years after KDARS was first launched, it became an associated member of the Na t i o n a l Kidney Federation ion (NKF), one of the groups to which ich Heather first turned ed in the early days. Heather said she he could not find anynyone offering paedidiatric support – “the he young NKF was for or 18-30s, there was as nothing for newwborn babies” – and d a recurring dream m she had about settting up her own n group gave her r new resolve after she had begun to feel desperate.
“I said at the time, ‘I’m just going to launch my own Facebook group’ and five other people said straight away, ‘can we join?’ There were obviously people out there in the same position as me.”
Heather, who is a mum of eight with four of her children still living at home, has also found time to launch KDARS Beanie Beads as a further way of supporting children with kidney issues. She makes children’s jewellery featuring cute kidney bean beads, which is sold to further the work of KDARS. “We have just found an office space at Grimsby Top Town Market,” said Heather. “It means we can separate home and KDARS life, with an office and a workshop for me to create my Beanie Beads jewellery – people can buy a bracelet or another piece of jewellery and put their child’s name on it. “I have also got leaflets with information about other kidney charities that people can come and pick up at the market.”
Heather, who has faced a number of health issues herself including a breast cancer diagnosis and a number of strokes, said: “If I can do something good for somebody else, if no family has to go through what we went through, ever, alone, then I will feel happy to have achieved that.”
Find out more by visiting the KDARS For Kids Facebook page.