December 9, 2024

A Runner’s Kidney

Surgeons at St. Joe’s Support Master’s Athlete Craig Thompson as he Donates a Kidney to His Mom, Cathie, and Returns to Compete on a Global Stage.

Craig Thompson has always been an athlete. He attended Queen’s University and played varsity football there as he pursued his undergraduate degree. After graduation, Craig’s finesse on the field as a defensive end led him to Denmark where he played professional football for a year. Upon his return to Canada, Craig embarked on a successful career as a banking, capital markets and wealth management professional, but he never stopped competing.

This summer, Craig took part in the World Master’s Athletics Championships (WMAC) in Sweden. It’s an elite competition that attracts thousands of athletes from countries all over the world between the ages of 35 to 100. The 800m and 1500m running distances are his competition events, and Craig hit times of 2:13 and 4:46 respectively.

What’s even more impressive is that Craig achieved all of this less than six months after donating one of his kidneys to his mom, Cathie.

“A couple of years ago, my mom’s kidney function began to decline. I learned that it’s something that happens to all of us at the rate of about one percent each year after the age of 50,” explains Craig. “But for my mom, her kidney function had declined to the point where she was faced with two options: begin dialysis or receive a kidney transplant from a willing donor.”

Craig immediately volunteered to be tested as a live kidney donor. But a mother’s first instinct is to protect her children, so at first, his mom outright refused to consider it.

“That’s when I put on my salesman’s hat,” says Craig. “I convinced mom that there was no downside to me getting tested. In fact, I got the most thorough medical workup anyone could ask for.”

Over the next few months, Craig and Cathie would undergo a gauntlet of tests, meetings with social workers and transplant counselors, and education sessions with the kidney care team at St. Joe’s. The more Craig and Catherine and their families learned about the success of kidney transplants, the likelihood of living a normal healthy life with one kidney, and the potentially bleak outlook for his mom without this transplant, the more certain this tight-knit family became that this son-to-mother transplant may just be the best way forward.

“My mom was worried about me. I’m an active husband and dad of two young boys. I run…a lot. But deep down, I already knew that even if this surgery meant that I could never run again, I still wanted to be able to give my mom more good years as the grandma to my two boys, Jack and George. She gave birth to me at St. Joe’s in 1982, and forty-two years later, I had the chance to give her life back to her here. It was a full circle moment for our family.”

In March 2024, Craig and Cathie’s respective surgeries were performed at St. Joe’s by Dr. Rahul Bansal. “A living donor kidney transplant offers the maximum chance of success for patients like Cathie who are living with end stage renal disease. Typically, a parent-child relation has a 50 percent chance of organ compatibility. In the case of Craig and Cathie, it was a really good match, meaning it was very likely to be a successful transplant.”

Craig went home within a few days, and his mother, shortly thereafter.

Cathie says, “I felt very blessed to have been cared for by Drs. Lanktree, Treleaven, Bansal, Gangji and P’Ng, along with nurses Melodie Jensen and Cindy Adema. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the support I received from the post-transplant care team and pharmacist Cathy Burger. Without their calm and reassuring words and manner this could have been a difficult experience. But there was no end to the compassion, support, education and professionalism in the care I received to guide me into my future life.”

And while Cathie was recovering, Craig started his long road back to running. He started with short walks shuffling down the hallway at first, and then progressed to longer ones outside. One day when he overdid it, he came to St. Joe’s to find the kidney care clinic closed for the day. Within moments, nurse Melodie Jansen spotted him in the hallway and had Dr. Bansal on the phone with Craig to address his concerns.

Week by week, and month by month, Craig got faster. Soon he felt hopeful that his goal of competing in this year’s World Master’s Athletics Championships might still be within his grasp.

“I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but I ended up having a great showing in Sweden. With my wife and sons watching from the stands, I matched my time set two years ago. At my age, you usually get slower every year, so I call that a win. Maybe I’m a bit faster without that second kidney weighing me down,” says Craig with a grin.

Inside Cathie, Craig’s kidney is now functioning at 90 percent and giving his mom a new lease on life.
“I feel great, and I’m so enjoying my renewed health and wellbeing,” she says.  “My friends often ask me if I am faster now that I have a runner’s kidney, but my answer is always the same: sadly, I have not yet experienced that transformation!”

And as for Craig, he says he’s in the best shape of his life.

“I feel the same as I did before the surgery thanks to the care I received at St. Joe’s and the rock-solid support of my wife, Jennifer, who was incredible throughout this journey. My boys didn’t always understand why their daddy couldn’t lift them up or wrestle and play like we used to for a few months. But Jennifer patiently explained how we were helping grandma and soon daddy would be back to his regular super-hero self. I’m really grateful to her.”

In appreciation for the care Craig and Cathie received at St. Joe’s, the family is making a gift to support kidney transplantation and care at the Hospital and sharing their journey, too.

“We can’t say enough about the care we received: from mom’s early diagnosis and monitoring, to the testing we underwent together; the conversations, education, counseling and the transplant surgery itself. Every person we encountered at the Hospital was remarkable, and it left a lasting impression on our family,” says Craig. “If sharing our story inspires one person to consider donating their kidney to a loved one, then that’s something we felt like we needed to do.”

Cathie echoes Craig’s appreciation for the care teams at St. Joe’s, and she had one more person to thank. “The Hamilton and area communities that are served by St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s Renal Transplant Unit are fortunate to be on the receiving end of a world class team of dedicated individuals. I’m grateful to them, and also to my son, Craig. He’s the real hero in my kidney transplant journey. Without his act of selflessness my life would have turned out very differently.”