A former patient of the Renal Unit, Jesuit Fr Pierre Grech Marguerat, will form part of the back-up team of this year's LifeCycle Challenge to help raise funds in aid of renal patients.
This year's challenge, themed Where Only Eagles Dare, is taking 27 cyclists and a back-up team of 15 on a 2,100 kilometre-route starting from Bucharest, in Romania, on August 7, going through Ukraine and Poland, and finishing off at Berlin, in Germany, on August 21.
Fr Grech Marguerat's task at the challenge will be first and foremost that of a priest - to say daily Mass and to offer support to the cyclists. However, he will also be doing whatever else the back-up team would need help with.
He said that, as the challenge was a highly demanding one, tension was ever present. The cyclists would be at the end of their tether. So any support they could get would come in handy.
Fr Grech Marguerat said the cyclists' major motivation should be to contribute to something worthwhile for persons who had to lie in bed for treatment three times a week and could not dream of taking part in such a challenge.
A type one diabetic, an illness very common in Malta, Fr Grech Marguerat started receiving peritoneal dialysis in 2003. This was a type of dialysis he could do at home. This type of dialysis, unfortunately, did not work for Fr Grech Marguerat and after a few months he had to be placed on haemodialysis for which he had to go to hospital two to three times a week for four-hour sessions.
Although haemodialysis replaced, to a certain extent, the kidney system, it still failed to fulfil certain functions done by the kidneys and could not purify certain toxins. After being on haemodialysis for about two years, Fr Grech Marguerat received a complicated double transplant during a 10-hour operation on December 31, 2005. He received a new kidney and new pancreas.
Fr Grech Marguerat said that receiving dialysis meant much more than spending four hours in hospital two to three times a week. It meant he could not travel without a lot of preparation and he could not eat and drink whatever he wanted.
A major problem was, in fact, not drinking as much as he wanted as the intake of fluids - including through fruit and vegetables - had to be really controlled. This was because when a kidney did not work, fluids were accumulated in the body. The topmost priority in life became dialysis and everything else had to be scheduled around it.
Although the operation was successful, getting back to normal took time.
Well over a year later, Fr Grech Marguerat feels confident that his body has adapted well to his donated organs.
Fr Grech Marguerat said he knew that the challenge ahead was much more than just a sports effort. It was all about people who were very fit raising awareness about a particular type of illness that could be helped with a donation of funds. All the cyclists also had to make a number of visits to the renal unit and talk to patients.
The challenge encourage the creation of a very important team spirit not just between the cyclists but also between the cyclists and their back-up team. Participants had to take time off work and made an enormous effort which was laudable, embarking on their rigorous training late at night or very early in the morning.
One person doing the challenge this year decided to cut the number of hours of his full-time job so that he would have enough time to train. Fr Grech Marguerat said that although Malta could now boast an excellent renal unit, some years ago it did not even have one. Now, thanks to LifeCycle, the unit was very well equipped and air conditioned too.
Moreover, treatment was given to all who needed it free of charge.
Since Lifecycle was launched in 1999, it has donated 16 kidney machines, 29 automated peritoneal dialysis machines, an air-conditioning system, a haemodialysis reverse osmosis plant, three dialysis couches, an ultrasound machine, two portable ultrasound machines, a cycling exercise machine and a hoist. It has also funded the unit's refurbishment and extension.