First post

Well, I've done it - I've created a blog for myself. I'm not sure yet what exactly I'll post or how often I'll post, or even how long I'll keep this going. But, I've started.

What's motivated me to start? Well, I'm heading up a team to walk in this year's Walk for PKD and I was surfing around the net the other night looking for some inspirational fundraising ideas and I came across a few PKD-related blogs that people had. And I thought - what a great way to get the word out about PKD!

PKD - that's Polycystic Kidney Disease if you didn't know it - is a disease which one out of every 500 people has. And yet, for some reason, few people seem to know about it. My wife, Jeanne, is one of those people that suffers from the disease, so over the past few years we've been getting more and more involved in the PKD Foundation's efforts to raise money and awareness for this disease. My family walked for the first time last year in the Walk for PKD and managed to raise more than $2000. We've signed up again this year and hope to raise even more.

But, more than raising money, I guess I feel compelled to get the word out about this disease. When my wife was diagnosed with PKD in 1992, I had never heard of it before. I thought it was some really rare disease. Then later, I come to learn that one in every 500 people has PKD!! So, how come noone seems to know about PKD? I guess it's because PKD doesn't have it's Jerry Lewis. PKD is 12 times more prevalent than muscular dystrophy - and everyone knows about MD thanks to Jerry's Labor Day Weekend Telethon.

So, I guess this blog is my small attempt to raise awareness of PKD. If you want to check out my Walk for PKD page, head over to http://www.pkdcure.org/goto/helpbobfightpkd