What a great turnout! At the 2016 Boston Walk for PKD we had 23 (two had to leave before this photo was taken) friends and family members representing Team Give Mike A Hand. OK, yes, I know he needs a kidney, but the name references my maiden name, Hand, and goes way back... anyway, we had people join us from California, Washington, DC, Providence, RI, Maine... we had friends from college, from work, in-laws of in-laws, a great sampling of the awesome group of people who have supported us over the years and will be cheering for both Mike and his donor as they go into surgery in the not-too-distant future.
The weather provided some unusual excitement this year. The Walk starts off with announcements and as soon as they made the announcement about Mike finding someone caring and generous and healthy enough to donate a kidney to him the skies opened and the next announcement was for everyone to go back to their cars and wait it out. While the volunteers tried to keep the tents from blowing away we huddled. About 15 minutes later the weather improved and we set off on an improvised walk before heading out for pizza and a great visit with some of our favorite folks.
We were happy to go out and show support for the PKD Foundation and the work they are doing to help cure this disease, so a special thanks to everyone who shows up and helps us raise awareness and thank you to all those who donate. We figure by this time Team Give Mike a Hand has probably raised over $40,000 for research! We missed those who couldn't make it and we had grateful thoughts for all of you who have done so much to get us to this point.
Next step... scheduling the surgery!
With never ending gratitude,
Samantha