CINCINNATI (WKRC) – This week, the National Kidney Foundation is asking you to honor those who give the gift of life.
Thursday is World Kidney Day, and you are asked to wear orange. There is also a dinner you can attend that day: Dining with the Stars. It’s at Rhinegeist, and you can show your support for several people who support living kidney donation, including one very special mother.
Andrea Remke recently lost her husband Matt Remke, a longtime recipient of a kidney donor.
“He was a perfectly healthy high school swimmer at St. X, and he had double kidney failure,” Andrea said.
Perry Hall and the National Kidney Foundation announced the Remke family is sponsoring “Heart Your Kidneys” at this year’s Dining with the Stars. It’s a display where painters use dialysis tubes filled with pain to create art. The artwork will be sold at the event to raise money for others in need of kidney donation. The Remke family is sponsoring “Heart Your Kidneys” in Matt’s name.
“He was always a champion for kidney health and organ donor awareness,” said Andrea
“Andrea, his wife, and Bill, his father, have become advocates in Matthew’s place, and we’re grateful to have them,” said Hall.
Along with the Remke family, Dr. Amit Govil of UC Health will also be honored as a kidney champion. He tirelessly works to raise awareness for the need for living kidney donors.
“More and more people are dying waiting for a kidney transplant, and most of it is just a lack of awareness about kidney donation and about kidney disease in general,” said Dr. Govil.
Part of what all these honorees and champions want you to know is how to lower your own risk you’ll ever need a transplant.
“If they have diabetes, high blood pressure, then they should be watching out for potential kidney disease that could come along,” said Dr. Govil.
As for why Andrea wants to keep supporting the Kidney Foundation this way — she says it was what Matt was all about.
“It was just really important to him, so it’s important to us now,” she said.