In 2002 he was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (PKD), an inherited disease. In 2015 he began to cut back on activities, and by 2018 required dialysis which he is doing daily at home.
He also needs our financial support to raise his 3 kids and to continue to add to the thousands of articles, names, locations, ancestries and records posted on his Doukhobor Genealogy Website and Doukhobor Message Board since 1999. Jon is still young and only about half done with his research. Don't let him stop.
The USCC announced Jon's dilemma during the 2018 Christmas Eve program, also on live stream video December 24, with other announcements projected on the large screen using images from his websites. See the video segment at time 57:21 to 58:35. A month later his former home town newspaper published an article about his illness. Jon lives and works in Regina, 240 km southwest of Canora.
- Former Canora resident in need of new kidney, Canora Courier, 25 January 2019
- Jonathans KidneyTeam, Facebook.
The Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) Program of Canada allows anyone to donate a kidney to any recipient, whether or not their kidneys match, and from anyplace in the world.
The KPD Program increases the probability for people in need of a kidney transplant, like Jon, to be restored to better health, and saved from death.
If your kidney is incompatible (not a match) for Jon, your kidney data goes into the Canadian Transplant Registry (CTR), a database that matches your kidney to the best recipient (not Jon), and a different kidney from the registry goes to Jon. It's like if one puts money in a bank in BC to give to someone who takes the money out in SK. We know it's not exactly the same money, but the value is the same. Meanwhile, the money you deposited in BC gets circulated to other people.
On the average, 4 to 5 people get a kidney due to the chain of transplants from 1 donated kidney.
People who donate a kidney can live normal lives with only one kidney because "...the single normal kidney will increase in size to compensate for the loss of the donated kidney." Recovery after surgery varies. See What to Expect After Donation. To donate a kidney, contact your provincial organ donor office. More than 99% do not regret donating their kidney. Best of all, Jon will be your buddy for life.
If you cannot donate your kidney, please donate a few dollars to support his research costs.
Update 19 February 2019
A "Prayer Circle Service for Jonathan Kalmakoff" was conducted during the DSSC Conference held on 16 February 2019 in Saskatoon.
Update 27 February 2019
On his Facebook page, Jon shared a photo of him on dialysis, pleads for more organ donors, and links to Canadians are Dying Because Our Organ Donation Rate is Dismally Low, by David Suzuki, The Nature of Things, CBC-TV, September 16, 2017.
Update 13 March 2019
From The Canora Courier, 11 January 2019:
National Gallery of Saskatchewan brings artistic presence to Canora
Jon Kalmakoff, formerly of Canora, commissioned the work after receiving a gift certificate from his mother Oney Pollock of Canora. Kalmakoff wrote "The Doukhobor Trading Company in Canora" series which was previously featured in the Canora Courier [in 5 parts during March 2018, and in Iskra].
After Kalmakoff took ill there was some concern over whether he would be able to cover the full cost of the painting. But his sister Janna Kalmakoff started a fundraiser and the full $1,500 had been raised by Christmas.
Update 22 March 2019
 |
| CTV News Regina, May 22, 2019 |
Father of three pleads for kidney donor, by Cally Stephanow, CTV News Regina, May 22, 2019. — After a 30 second commercial, Jon and his daughters are interviewed.
Details
- How an economist’s idea to create kidney transplant chains has saved lives, Making $ense, PBS NewsHour, 7 February 2019.
- Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) Program, Canadian Blood Services.
- List of all Canadian living kidney donation programs
- Clinical Guidelines for Living Donor Kidney Transplantation, BC Transplant, 2019 (PDF, 84 pages)
- Kidney Paired Donation, Wikipedia.
- What to Expect After Donation, National Kidney Foundation.
- Search Google
Note: Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in economic science for developing the algorithms that are required to match large numbers of donors and recipients in KPD. See their math: Massó, Jordi. The theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design. The Nobel Prize in Economics 2012 for Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley, Contributions to Science 11:103-112 (2015)
My first job after graduating from UCLA in 1972 with a MA in Chemistry was Renal Perfusion Technician, assisting at the most active kidney transplant center in the world at that time, at the Attending Staff Association (research labs) at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. My job was assisting picking up and delivering live kidneys throughout Southern California, and maintaining them refrigerated with oxygenated plasma on the 2nd large Belzer perfusion machine between harvest and transplants. I participated in about 200 operations working for the surgeons. History of Belzer.
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