Hundreds of people took part in the annual Brantford Kidney Walk, raising $32,106 for the fundraiser at Harmony Square on Sunday, September 27, 2026.
Liz Giacinti, president of the Kidney Foundation’s Brant County Chapter, noted that the total is preliminary and that donations will continue to come in until the end of the year. Last year the event managed to raise of $45,000.
“The difference could be economic shifts for everyone and the loss of major fundraisers,” said Giacinti. About 150 people attended the walk, down from about 200 last year.
Participants gathered and registered at Harmony Square, then began the walk after a speech by Mayor Kevin Davis, Ryan Patterson, and Dr. Alistair Ingram, followed by a short warm-up.
Patterson was this year’s ambassador for the event and told the crowd during his speech about the kidney disease he lived with for five years, and having three years of nightly dialysis at Brantford General Hospital, Patterson received a kidney at the beginning of November 2024.
He said a BK virus, a complication that affects about five per cent of transplant recipients, is now attacking the kidney and causing nausea and fatigue, and his family walked on his behalf this year.
“I will be walking next year,” said Patterson. “This is not going to bring me down.”
Angie Sysiuk’s family has taken part in the walk since her daughter, Alyssa, was 14. Sysiuk said Alyssa, now 18, has stage 5 kidney disease and about seven per cent kidney function. She is on the deceased donor list, and the family is looking for a living donor. Giacinti said Alyssa will need dialysis if she does not receive a kidney soon.
Sysiuk said Alyssa’s kidneys shut down after a placental abruption at birth and did not grow to her size. She said many people think kidney disease is mainly an adult condition.
“There are a lot of people who have it,” said Sysiuk, “and you don’t even know you’ve got something wrong until something happens.”
Sysiuk said she hopes research produces alternatives to human donation in the next couple of decades.
Ingram, a nephrologist who practised at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, said that progress is already happening. In his first 25 years of practice, there was one medication for chronic kidney disease, he said, and there are now four, all developed in the past five to 10 years.
“Medical research and advancements have never been going faster,” said Ingram. He credited groups that raise money for making that possible.
