Employees at the Mayo Clinic’s dialysis unit, located on the HealthReach campus, are banding together to raise money for National Kidney Foundation through the 2009 Kidney Walk.

The walk will be held Sunday, July 26, at Silver Lake Park in Rochester. The National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Walk is a non-competitive, fundraising walk focusing on education and prevention of kidney and urinary tract diseases and awareness of the need for organ donation. The walk presents an opportunity for family, friends and colleagues to celebrate life while participating in an inspiring, community-based event, which calls attention to the need for early detection of kidney disease while supporting NKF’s patient services, public and professional initiatives and kidney research.

The local group calls itself Paula’s Pavement Pounders, and are walking in honor of Paula Paulson, who works as a patient care technician in the dialysis unit. Paulson received a kidney from her father, Wally Trow, 15 years ago. She began working in the unit in 2003.

Paulson’s kidney troubles began when she was just 6 years old. She had strep throat, which can attack some organs. She spent a week in the hospital because she was sick and dehydrated.

At age 12, she had her first kidney biopsy. “They knew I would need a transplant eventually,” she said. “I had chronic failure.”

At age 18, after she had graduated from high school, Paulson received one of her father’s kidneys. “I was lucky I had two matches — him, and my sister, Theresa,” Paulson said.

26 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease (and most don’t know it, which is why early detection can save lives.

Another 20 million are at risk.

340,000 people depend on dialysis for survival.

100,000 people are currently waiting for organ transplants.

17 people die each day while waiting for transplants.

60,000 people walked in the 2008 Kidney Walk.

Although she was never on dialysis herself, she said she knew she would have a special bond with the patients in the dialysis unit.

“Thank goodness there is dialysis as a treatment option,” she said.

There are 65 patients who use the dialysis unit. They come from Wells, Austin and Blooming Prairie as well as Albert Lea.

In addition to co-workers, the team includes members of Paulson’s family.

Mary Holstad, a nurse in the unit and team member, said she heard about the walk while in Rochester and go online with the National Kidney Foundation to find out more. They got dialysis staff and Paulson’s two sisters, Rhonda and Theresa, and her husband, Jared, and son, Sam, to help make up in the team.

According to Sarah Barsness, division community project manager for the National Kidney Foundation in St. Paul, kidney disease is a growing epidemic. As high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and hypertension numbers rise in this country, kidney disease is sure to follow, she said.

Kidney disease is asymptomatic, meaning there are no symptoms until a person’s kidneys are in failure. Once that happens, it’s dialysis — three times a week for three to four hours at a time — or organ donation, Barsness said.

“At this point, prevention is the only way to cure kidney disease,” Barsness said.

That’s why the NKF is holding the Rochester Kidney Walk to raise money for a free kidney health screening in Rochester this November. The screening works to detect kidney disease at its earliest and most treatable stage.

There is no registration fee to participate in the walk, but those participating are asked to either make a donation or fundraise.

Anyone who would like to support Paula’s Pavement Pounders can call Paulson at 383-7389, Holstad at (641) 324-1563, or go to the Web site, www.kidneywalk.org, go to “find a kidney walk,” click on the Rochester walk, then click on “donate to a walker.”