The Foundation turns 50 This year, The Kidney Foundation of Canada is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and more than ever, our volunteers and staff, along with the many patients who benefit from our services, as well as their loved ones, are feeling the same sense of urgency that drove the organization’s founders to take action. Research, the development of new treatments and technologies, and early diagnosis are critical if we are to provide a hopeful future for the increasing number of people who will be diagnosed with kidney failure over the next 20 years.
Looking to the future, learning from the past I
n 1958, Dr. John Dossetor coordinated a successful kidney transplant between identical twins at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, marking the first kidney transplant in the Commonwealth. But even he had to admit that in the 1960s “the level of ignorance of what was going on in the blood and in the kidneys of [those with kidney disease] was simply enormous.” And the ignorance took its toll. In 1963, a young architect, Morty Tarder, was diagnosed with Goodpasture’s Syndrome. Today, his syndrome is treatable, but in 1963, Dr. Dossetor had no treatments to offer. “When Morty died under my care at the Royal Victoria Hospital, his father, in grief and despair, said, ‘Can’t anything be done to prevent this sort of thing? In this day and age, surely someone can do something?” Harry Tarder’s questions cut to the heart of Dr. Dossetor’s growing frustrations with the lack of available treatment and prevention tools. “For those with chronic renal failure, we had nothing to offer. [Harry’s] agonizing statement haunted me, personally, and led to a resolve to try and do something about our impotence! I then got in touch with Dr. Guy Lemieux of Hôpital Hôtel Dieu in
Montreal and we started talking about a foundation…” Mr. Tarder turned to his friend Arthur (Ike) Boidman and asked for his help. Mr. Boidman, a prominent Montreal businessman, helped recruit other doctors and interested individuals and became a founder of the national foundation.
John B. Dossetor Dr. John B. Dossetor is considered the founding father of nephrology, dialysis and transplantation in Canada. After receiving MB and BCh degrees from University of Oxford in 1950, he conducted postgraduate work at St. Bart’s Hospital in London before serving for two years as a medical officer with the Royal Army Medical Corps in India, Malaysia and Singapore. In 1955, he emigrated to Canada to accept a lecturer position at McGill University and later became its Chief Medical Resident. Dr. Dossetor is one of the great figures in the advent of organ transplantation in Canada. In Montreal in 1958, he coordinated the country’s first kidney transplant involving a living donor.
THANKS TO OUR FOUNDERS 1st board of directors of The Kidney Foundation of Canada:
· President: Mr. Arthur Boidman · Treasurer: Mr. Harry Tarder · Secretary: Mrs. Martha Allaire
· Vice-Presidents: Mr. Harold Ashenmil and Mr. Yves Fortier Kidney Link • Winter 2014
Your donation goes a long way at The Kidney Foundation
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