Cross-Counry Bike Trek: Kidneys Optional

Shad Ireland endured two failed kidney transplants and requires dialysis multiple times a week. At 20 years old, he was given six months to live, and at one point he weighed a mere 79 pounds. But none of that stopped the now 37-year-old from cycling clear across the country.

Ireland arrived on the steps of the US Capitol Building last week after a 4,639 mile journey that began in California. His goal? First, to draw attention to the 500,000 US citizens living with kidney failure and dialysis; second, to serve as a wake-up call to people with obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes so they realize those conditions put them at risk for kidney failure; and finally, to serve as a model for people on dialysis everywhere — encouraging them to fight fatigue and get out and exercise for their own health.

“For me to be on dialysis for 27 years, for me to do two triathlons, has really got the medical community scratching their heads,” Ireland told ABC News. “If you asked any doctor, if you told them about me, they would say it’s impossible.”

Without working kidneys, Ireland needed to make a few adjustments for his trek. Namely, he had to schedule four-hour dialysis sessions every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to clean the toxins out of his blood that a healthy kidney usually does on its own. Dialysis often exhausts patients, but doctors say fighting through it, as Ireland has done, is key for overall health.

“The idea of trying to get people to exercise has been talked about for years,” said Dr. Robert Stanton, the chief of nephrology at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. “Look, there is no reason that you have to be sitting around and feeling ill. If you get up and moving you can really take charge of your life.”

Don’t worry, nobody’s expecting you to bike across the country. But peel yourself off the couch, get up and move. It’s good for your health.

Photo courtesy of keep rollin rollin rollin via stock.xchang