Awareness of Polycystic Kidney Disease is about to receive a major boost from a team of dedicated rally car drivers and a family determined to make a difference.
Team HoBro and car “Polly” is embarking on the Kidney Kar Rally from Port Macquarie to Armidale via the Capricorn Coast (9-17 August) and are among the top fundraisers supporting children with kidney disease. They have named their car “Polly” to raise awareness of the impact of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). PKD affects Jason’s wife, Fiona and many members of their immediate family.
Friends and workmates Jason Broers and Daniel Hoffman are busily preparing for the Kidney Kar Rally, including branding the car with the logo of PKD Australia, the only Australian organisation dedicated to funding medical research to find a cure for PKD.
PKD is the most common life-limiting genetic disorder and the fourth leading cause of kidney failure, accounting for 6% of new patients requiring renal replacement therapies, representing a significant burden to the community.
Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) is relentlessly progressive. As the disease develops, cysts appear on both kidneys and the kidneys themselves enlarge, often up to five times their normal size, leading to kidney failure.
For the PKD patients that develop kidney failure, dialysis and transplantation are the only available treatments. For people with the most common form of PKD, Autosomal Dominant PKD (ADPKD), there is a one in two chance of passing the faulty gene onto each child.
Fiona Boers said, “This disease affects families, not only individuals. I am one of three siblings and our family story started with my youngest brother being diagnosed at age 16 after a rugby injury that burst a cyst. This was the first time our family had heard of ADPKD, and soon after my father and other brother were tested and both had the disease. I was diagnosed in 2002 at the age of 31 after fainting at work, and in recent years my eldest son and niece have been diagnosed. To date, everyone in my family who has been tested has ADPKD.”
Fiona said, “I’m proud of the effort that’s gone into preparing “Polly” and the support that the team has received”
