Calve Milligan at the 2016 Kidney Walk

For Calve Milligan, a LogistiCare employee, watching his mother endure long hours in the dialysis chair was difficult.  “My mother suffered from diabetes most of her adult life. In 2010, her doctor notified her that her kidneys were failing. My brothers and I were incredibly saddened by the news, because kidney failure would mean she would have to receive dialysis treatment at least 3 days a week for 4 hours a day, which can be very a grueling process. Our worst fears had come to life when in August of 2012 my mother’s kidneys completely failed and she had to begin dialysis treatments.

Although I knew my mother would need a kidney donation to no longer need dialysis, I was not mentally prepared to consider myself. We continued to wait for a donor, as no matches came about. I knew my mother secretly had hoped for her children to be able to help her, but she didn’t want to burden us. But the pressure was too much, and she told my brother that she felt like giving up. At that point I thought to myself, there’s no way we should lose our mother without at least being tested to see if we were candidates to donate our kidney.

In early 2015, my brothers and I scheduled a visit to Montefiore Hospital for the 3 of us to be tested. Although, we all were a match, I was the closest match and most mentally ready to go through with the process and the surgery. They ran multiple tests and evaluations to make sure that I was not only physically ready but mentally ready as well. The journey to be a kidney transplant donor was not an easy one, but in the end, it was all worth it to see my mother living her life free of a dialysis schedule.”

Calve joined LogistiCare’s Kidney Walk team and personally raised $5,000 toward the team goal in honor of his mom. The company’s commitment to the National Kidney Foundation and helping people fight kidney disease is rooted in its core mission, to enrich healthcare communities and improve lives. Each year, LogistiCare enables more than 13 million trips to dialysis centers – some 20 percent of the nearly 70 million healthcare trips it manages annually for private, commercial and government-assisted riders.

“All of us at LogistiCare are honored to join the fight against kidney disease and represent the very members we serve across the country,” said Gregg Bryars, senior vice president of operations at LogistiCare, who also serves as the National Captain for Team LogistiCare. “We find that supporting this community and doing something larger than ourselves has created a strong culture of teamwork and service throughout our organization.”

Bryars said 2017 plans include continuing to educate the company’s 4,000 associates and their families about kidney disease, participating in the Kidney Walks across the country and fundraising throughout its fourth year as a corporate supporter.

In 2016, through a national initiative and partnership with NKF, LogistiCare employees fundraised more than $130,000, making them the first National Team to fundraise more than $100,000 for NKF in one year through Kidney Walk events.