Looking at four-year-old Joliet resident Nolan King, you might think he looks like any other child, but Nolan has suffered from kidney problems even before he was born. It’s because of this that Nolan’s mother, Sandy King, is participating in the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois Walk for Kidneys event and hoping that money can be raised to support the cause.
King found out through an ultrasound that Nolan had bad kidneys. At first, doctors weren’t sure he even had kidneys, but they realized that wasn’t the case.
“They were deformed and distended and didn’t look like kidneys, but he did have kidneys,” King said.
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Nolan has chronic kidney disease, which is degenerative and will get worse as he gets older.
“It’s a disease where they can’t tell you when they’re going to stop functioning or if they’re going to stop functioning,” she said. “He may live to be 20 years old and they stop, but over the course of that time, his kidneys aren’t filtering the bad stuff out of his blood and he will have secondary health conditions like heart disease and diabetes, just to name a few.”
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Despite these problems, Nolan reminds as cheerful and happy a kid as he can be.
“He looks and acts like a 4 year old,” she said. “He loves WWE. He and his brother practice wrestling on each other whenever they can.”
He also joined a soccer team. Wednesday will be his first day of practice.
“He plays for the Joliet Park District,” King said.
As of now, a kidney transplant is not an option for Nolan. He won’t be able to get on the list until he’s in complete kidney failure.
“That’s why we are doing the National Kidney Foundation walk,” she said. “There are so many promising programs out there to prevent him from going into failure or to help him filter his kidneys before he gets heart disease or diabetes.”
While the requested $2,500 has been reached, every dollar counts. More money raised means more help can be given.
The Walk for Kidneys event is set for 9 a.m. June 21 at Soldier Field’s Stadium Green in Chicago. The walk itself begins at 10:30 a.m. Registration for the event is free.
Photo courtesy of Sandy King
CAPTION: Nolan King rests in a hospital bed. Despite his condition, Nolan has remained upbeat and positive through his ordeal.
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