Desert walk for dialysis
A Melbourne art consultant is walking 1500km through the Western Desert to raise funds for kidney dialysis
Raising money for a worthwhile cause is hard yakka if your name is Ken McGregor, who left Alice Springs on August 1 and plans to walk to Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia via remote communities at Yuendumu, Papunya, Haasts Bluff, Mt Liebig and Kintore.
The amateur walker aims to raise more than $100,000 for the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal being run by the Nganampa Walytja Palyanjaku Tjutka Aboriginal Corporation.
With a support crew following him in a Toyota FJ Cruiser, McGregor plans to walk 40-50km a day and cover the journey in a month to help fund the operating costs of the mobile dialysis unit.
The vehicle is being built in Adelaide and is designed to handle the remote, corrugated desert roads.
It will deliver much-needed treatment to the isolated communities, so kidney disease sufferers can continue to live close to family.
"I'm doing this walk to support the Purple House dialysis clinic in Alice Springs and the mobile dialysis truck, because kidney disease is a major problem, especially here in the Western Desert," he said.
"It's an area that is very dear to me, one I first visited on a school trip in 1973.
"I've seen the effects of kidney disease. It's terrifying to visit the Purple House and see 30 people hooked up to blood machines."
McGregor said he hopes publicity from his desert walk will highlight the problem of kidney disease to people in the cities, thereby supporting the plight of the Aboriginal communities in combating diabetes and kidney failure.
"It's such a good cause that if I have to do it on my hands and knees, I'll do it," he said.
McGregor is a visual artist manager, art consultant to Art Series Hotels, curator and collector of contemporary world art, a specialist in Aboriginal art and a facilitator of art-related projects.
To follow the trip including video updates, or to make a donation, visit the Desert Walk for Dialysis website.
McGregor has also produced a coffee-table book, Portraits of Western Desert Artists, with royalties from sales to be donated to the Desert Walk.
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