Kidney Health Awareness volunteer advocates for caring for people and protecting the planet
Ed.: The essays, analyses and opinions presented as Community Voices express the perspectives of their authors on topics of interest and importance to the community, and are not intended to reflect perspectives on behalf of Salish Current.
Two Whatcom County residents, Carol Ransom, a retired nurse who helped open the first dialysis unit at St. Joseph Hospital, and Dr. Chao-ying Wu, who practiced family medicine in Bellingham for over two decades, recently shared their stories in Cascadia Daily News after donating a kidney in January.
Their decisions were rooted in compassion, but their impact reaches far beyond the operating room. They are part of a growing community initiative to confront one of medicine’s quietest crises: kidney disease.
This year’s World Kidney Day theme, “Kidney Health for All: Caring for People, Protecting the Planet,” underscores that kidney health is not only a medical issue but also an environmental one. The environmental cost of kidney failure is enormous: each in-center dialysis treatment uses massive amounts of water and electricity and generates substantial single-use plastic waste. Every person who preserves kidney health through early, active surveillance and care helps protect both personal well-being and the planet’s finite resources.
Retired nephrologist Dr. Bill Lombard hopes to transform this local momentum into a lasting movement. His “moonshot” goal is to eliminate the kidney transplant waitlist in Whatcom County by 2030 — think of President John F. Kennedy’s inspirational call to the nation to land a man on the moon: a bold vision that invites innovation, partnership and belief in what is possible.
The need is urgent. Chronic kidney disease affects roughly one in seven U.S. adults, many of whom do not realize it until the disease is advanced. Diabetes and high blood pressure remain the leading causes. Yet, many cases could be prevented or delayed through healthier living and early detection if proactive care is treated as a public health priority. The public should be educated to ask their care providers about kidney function just as they would about blood pressure or cholesterol.
That shift begins by integrating diabetes and kidney disease prevention into the broader public health agenda, alongside clean air, water and better nutrition. Workers, especially those in outdoor fields such as agriculture and construction, should also be aware of heat and environmental threats to kidney health and how to reduce them.
Health care professionals must emphasize integrated, preventive and community-based care that supports well-being and environmental responsibility. Programs like Ask a Nurse, operated under Health Ministries Network, show what community-based collaborations can look like at their best. Staffed primarily by retired nurses who maintain their licenses, the program focuses on rural and underserved residents, offering blood pressure checks, glucose testing, patient education and navigation, which helps catch kidney disease and other health problems early before they become more serious.
For people already facing kidney failure, expanding opportunities for living donation remains vital. Mount Baker Foundation will host a Living Kidney Donor Information Lunch on April 26 from noon to 2 p.m. at Squalicum Boathouse in Bellingham, giving residents a chance to learn what donation involves and how one healthy person can change another’s life forever. Everyone is welcome.
If kidney health protection is the foundation and donation is the lifeline, then awareness is the spark that drives both. The moonshot here is not only about medical milestones; it is about reimagining kidney care as part of a sustainable, communitywide public health future that values prevention as much as cure and recognizes that caring for people and protecting the planet are inseparable goals.
—By Micki Jackson
The writer is a volunteer with the Kidney Health Awareness Group, an initiative that began under the leadership of Debbie Ahl, the former executive director at the Mount Baker Foundation. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not represent any organization.