By Anne Duggan
Love was most definitely in the air at this year’s Alive to Strive race on April 27 at Mooney’s Bay.
Having her husband’s kidney, along with his heart, is the ultimate in romance according to Colleen Hayes, who was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2008 and was one half of the event’s pair of celebrity participants.
“It is definitely the biggest selfless act for a spouse to do,” Hayes says of her husband Jason Dunkerley’s early-March donation of a kidney. “He has paid off all anniversary and birthday gifts, that’s for sure.”
For Hayes, the transplant has already become another landmark in their relationship road.
“It was our 10-year anniversary a day after the surgery,” she notes.
A well-known local Paralympic athlete, Dunkerley has represented Canada on the track at four Paralympic Games. Last summer, he and guide runner Josh Karanja won bronze at the London Paralympic Games in the T11 1,500 meters and silver in the 5,000 for athletes with visual impairments.
The couple’s ability to walk the 5 km course in an event that raised $17,000 to help people living with chronic kidney disease live a healthy and active life demonstrates the quick recovery they’ve had following the transplant.
“It’s going really well,” Dunkerley notes. “Our doctors fully prepared us and we were strong and healthy. For me, it almost feels like it didn’t happen.”
Still, the 35-year-old admits to a twinge of self-pity at the race start when runners swept past him.
“Sure it was tough,” he signals.
His wife has another side to the story.
“Well, he is going for a run with a friend after this!” she countered.
The planned run is part of Dunkerley’s return to world-class speed and a bid for a spot at the 2013 International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France this July.
“He is running every other day after six weeks of not running, only walking on a treadmill,” explains his brother and fellow Paralympic athlete Jon Dunkerley, who was also one of the 533 participants in the Alive to Strive event. “He realized how important rest was and really wanted to follow instructions for the best recovery.”
Dunkerley’s guide, Josh Karanja, says he is cautiously optimistic about the comeback.
“We have until mid-June to get a standard and we are already in May. It’s going to be tight,” says Karanja, who won the 10 km Alive to Strive race with a time of 32:06.9. “I think the 800 standard of 2:05 is doable. Jason went into (the surgery) very fit.”