Valen Keefer is one of the Chris Klug Foundation’s (CKF) Patient Ambassadors and speaks on behalf of the foundation, polycystic kidney disease (PKD), and organ donation. Valen traveled to San Diego with CKF as part of the organization’s annual Patient Ambassador Tour, presented by Astellas Pharma, to speak with transplant
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A Night of Thanks & Celebration
It was incredibly special to have the Chris Klug Foundation’s top donors, key stakeholders, and supporters all together in one room at our fifth annual Founders’ Circle dinner this past Thursday night to celebrate and recognize their contributions. Over 80 friends of the foundation joined us for this honorary tradition
Our Inaugural Year at the Leadville Trail 100 Run
CC Cunningham is the blog writer and Program Manager for the Chris Klug Foundation (CKF). We’re baaack! CKF returned to Leadville, Colorado for the second time this month to participate in another 100-mile race—and this time, it was all on foot! Yep, you read that right. The Leadville Trail 100
A Spoke-Tacular Time in Leadville
CC Cunningham is the blog writer and Program Manager for the Chris Klug Foundation. …Sorry about that terrible pun, but we did have a pretty awesome time in Leadville, Colorado this past weekend! As is the yearly tradition with our foundation, this year’s CKF charity team traveled to our neighboring
2019 Bounce Back Give Back Award Winner: Derek Fitzgerald
In 2003, Derek Fitzgerald was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), a type of blood cancer that primarily affects the immune system, after doctors removed a grapefruit-sized tumor from his intestines. Derek went into complete remission after going through chemotherapy, however, the chemo did significant damage to his heart and he
2019 Bounce Back Give Back Award Winner: Lauren Shields
When Lauren Shields was just nine years old, she contracted a harmful virus that attacked her heart. By the time she made it to the hospital, she had gone into sudden cardiac arrest with her heart functioning at 14%. She was immediately added to the heart transplant waitlist with the
CKF: An Intern’s Perspective
Storey Balko is CKF’s summer intern through the month of July. Storey has been a huge help with event planning, social media, and general administrative tasks. She wrote an article for the CKF blog about her experience as an intern and what she learned while working with CKF over the
Kicking Off Our 2019 Patient Ambassador Tour!
2019 is well underway, which means another year of our nationwide Patient Ambassador Tour! Last Wednesday, we kicked off the 2019 Tour, presented by Astellas Pharma, right here in our home state of Colorado, where we visited two hospitals in the Denver area. To honor National Pediatric Transplant Week, our
Getting the Facts in the Garden State
CC Cunningham is the blog writer and Program Manager for the Chris Klug Foundation. Last week, I traveled to the sunny (though not so warm) Jersey Shore to attend the 2019 New Jersey Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance’s annual conference. I know, it’s a mouthful. That’s why
Having a Ball at BBYO
CC Cunningham is the blog writer and Program Manager for the Chris Klug Foundation. Where do I even begin?! This was CKF’s first year attending the BBYO International Conference and we went into it not knowing what to expect. BBYO is a self-described “movement” that brings together Jewish teens around the