Marie-Eve Chainey

Meet Marie-Eve Chainey, living with kidney disease

She was an elite high jumper almost felled by kidney disease. Marie-Eve Chainey’s story started back when she was just 18.

She had left her home town of Kapuskasing to train in Spain on an exchange program. Shortly after arriving, Marie-Eve started to gain weight; she also bruised easily. Then a few months later, she became extremely dizzy while trying to climb the stairs. “I went to a clinic, where I was told that both my kidneys had shut down. A week before I was taking part in the provincials, and next thing I knew I was in intensive care, receiving blood transfusions.”

Thereafter, the life that Marie-Eve knew changed. No longer able to compete, she returned home … to dialysis treatments three times a week at the local hospital.

“At one time I was on top of the sports world, training on the international stage; the next thing I knew, I was undergoing regular dialysis treatments because my kidneys had shut down. Without the research advances that have been made by The Kidney Foundation of Canada, I would not be living the life I am today.”

Marie-Eve Chainey

Her situation — and quality of life — improved once she was able to trade dialysis in the hospital for dialysis at home. “Having that option totally changed my life,” she says. “I was able to go back to school and I graduated from a nursing program. I went back to sports, and in 2010 I qualified to go to the nationals in track and field” — a huge accomplishment considering that Marie-Eve could barely wash her hair or move around at one point.

For Marie-Eve, all these things would not have been possible if it were not for the strides that have been made by The Kidney Foundation of Canada, one of 17 national health charities working under the HealthPartners umbrella to transform the health of Canadians. Thanks to the funding dollars that have gone towards researching better treatment options, Marie-Eve and others like her are enjoying a better quality of life. “I am living proof that donating to HealthPartners works.”