NBA player Alonzo Mourning uses celebrity fame to fight kidney disease

Aug 21 2010

n October 2000, Mourning was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerular sclerosis (FSGS), a kidney disease that causes scarring in the glomeruli, the blood vessels in the kidneys that filter the blood to make urine.

Mourning was obviously unsettled by this news in the midst of a Hall of Fame caliber NBA career. "I was devastated, scared, and unsure about my future... looking for answers. It was just like going into a classroom for the biggest test of your life without studying."

Mourning, through nearly divine intervention, received a kidney transplant in late 2003 from a cousin with whom he had fallen out of touch. This enabled Mourning to play a key role on the Miami Heat's 2006 NBA Champion.

A second chance and new battles

Mourning knew that he could use his celebrity to touch many more lives off the court to help fight the battle against kidney disease. "Zo's Fund For Life" was created in 2001 to "be an inspiration, and ensure communication and prevention of kidney disease." This has become Mourning's true passion as well as pushing everyone into "becoming an organ donor, which is one of the most important things in the fight against kidney disease. It's an amazing, easy gesture."

Kidney Background from the National Kidney Foundation

Kidneys reach maximum function at approximately age 10 and ultimately weigh about five ounces each. Despite their small size, they receive about 25 percent of the heart output and cleanse the entire volume of blood many times per day. How well the kidney functions is expressed as glomerular filtration rate (GFR.) Normal GFR is 90–100 percent.

MediaPlanet's Report

Through MediaPlanet's KIDNEY HEALTH Report in the Chicago Tribune, both Alonzo Mourning and leading physicians, survivors, nutritionists, and associations outline the ways of preventing kidney disease, early diagnosis, keeping healthy, and the common causes of kidney disease, like diabetes and high blood pressure. With participation from Abbott Laboratories: Kidney Watch, Seattle Sutton, Associates in Nephrology, CSL Behring, Miami Transplant Institute, Medical Education Institute, Loyola University Medical Center, and Kibow Biotech this report will cover all aspects of MediaPlanet's Kidney Health for everyone from the patient to the physician.

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