A two-year-old boy from Sudbury, Ont., whose debilitating kidney disease has forced him to spend his entire life living in Toronto, is finally getting the surgery he needs so he can go home.

Taylum Lamoureux was born with a rare form of polycystic kidney disease. Hours after his birth, he was transported to Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. And since then, he’s needed daily dialysis treatment at the hospital.

Only one in four babies with Taylum’s condition survive, and the toddler has already undergone more than 1,000 hours of hemodialysis and nine surgeries.

The daily medical requirements have forced Taylum and his mother, Desiree, to live in Toronto full-time.

Taylum’s father, Darren, has continued to work 12-hour shifts as an electrician in Sudbury -- a four-hour drive away -- so the family can pay bills and hold onto health insurance.

The separation, the constant back-and-forth travel and, of course, Taylum’s health problems, have put a strain on the family.

But now, thanks to an anonymous donor, that is expected to change.

Taylum is scheduled to receive a new kidney on May 13. A successful surgery would allow the toddler to stop his daily treatments in Toronto and go home to Sudbury.

"It is all due to the love and kindness of a perfect stranger who volunteered to be tested as a match for Taylum," said Tammy Jutila, a friend of the Lamoureux family.

In Sudbury, the community has been preparing a warm welcome for the two-year-old.

Jutila, a teacher, and her students are part of a group of residents fundraising to build a playset for Taylum. The group also wants to make a donation to Ronald McDonald House, where Desiree and Taylum have been living in Toronto.

To raise the money, schools and businesses around the city are selling temporary tattoos that read "I'm in Taylum’s tribe." The fundraiser organizers are encouraging supporters to take a photo of themselves wearing the tattoo on the day of Taylum’s surgery, before posting it online so that the Lamoureux family can see how many people care about them.

"In the future, I think it’ll be wonderful to show Taylum how many people were touched by his story," Desiree told CTV Northern Ontario.

It’s not the first time community members have pitched in to help the family. In December, the Ontario Toyota Dealers Wishmaker campaign gave Desiree and Darren a cheque for $25,000 and a new 2015 Toyota Corolla. And in April, when living arrangements became uncertain, Torontonians stepped up and offered the family a place to stay.

Overall, Desiree said she is grateful for all the people who have pitched in to help her son get healthy and come home.

"We have been very moved by the love and support we have been shown by the City of Toronto and beyond," the toddler's mother told CTVNews.ca in April.

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Providing donuts for volunteers in a barn may be a key in an outbreak linked to 45 E. coli O157:H7 illnesses. According to King 5, Handwashing stations (which are never enough) weren’t available and hand sanitizer units were empty. A recipe for disaster, as they say.

The Whatcom County Health Department is trying to figure out what caused Toby Hager and 44 others to fall ill after a dairy festival in Lynden.

Hager described how he helped set up a maze in this dairy barn before the Milk Makers Fest last month.

“We were to pick up hay bales and set them up in a certain way for a map for a maze,” he said.

As a reward for their work, Hager and the rest of the Lynden High School Ag Tech class were fed donuts in the very same barn.

He said the hand washing stations were not turned on. He found only a pump of hand sanitizer.

“Just the one hand sanitizing station that was on a pole that, as I said before, was empty,” Hager said.

The next day the 15-year-old fell ill.

“He came home from school and complained he had a really bad headache,” said his mother, Amy Hayes-Shaw.

Soon he passed blood and started vomiting. Finally in the hospital doctors told his family he had contracted E. coli.

“I freaked out,” his mother said. “I was horrified. Because I remember Jack-In-The-Box and I remembered Odwalla.”

Just like the patients in those outbreaks, Hager suffered acute kidney failure. He went through surgery and dialysis twice.

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When I was being tested for a kidney transplant back in 2000, a doctor in the transplant program said, “Well, you know, dialysis is just a bridge to transplantation.”

“How can you say that to me?” I replied, “I’ve been living my life on that bridge!” And indeed, I have built a good life for myself on that bridge with kidney dialysis since 1975. The bridge is a metaphor for any circumstance that we face in our journey, and my journey includes three failed transplant attempts.

Out in the world, I am asked questions like, “Dialysis? How could you possibly do that? I could never do that!” or conversely, “You’ve been on dialysis for how long? Oh, you’re so brave!”  Is there fear at times? Of course there is. It’s unrealistic to think you can eliminate fear. It’s far more realistic, when you need to, to move forward right alongside and through that fear.

My prospective film––Life On The Bridge and its accompanying website, Lifeonthebridge.com––is a personal documentary, examining that fear and the belief that life is over. It is a story about overcoming adversity and shaping your own life, no matter what the obstacle, a message shared through my experience.

The chronic illness

Years ago, after more than a decade away due (thankfully) to peritoneal dialysis, I walked back into the dialysis unit. To my shock, I looked around and realized that, though the machines were more advanced than last I saw them in the mid-1980s, the attitudes of many of the people sitting in the dialysis chairs seemed unchanged: lots of apathy, lots of depression, lots of passivity. Seeing this situation revealed to me that I needed to help bust societal myths and attitudes related to those living with any chronic health issue, which are instrumental in keeping people in that negative space.

The website and the film offer two approaches. I present a message to the general public of overcoming challenges and creating a good life through the particular expression of my journey with dialysis.

On the other hand, the website is also directed toward those working in the kidney field.

Step #1:I offer nephrologists (and doctors-in-training), nurses, and the health care team resources that illustrate empowering perspectives on life and life with a chronic illness. Publications such as Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions, by Kate Lorig, et al., an incredibly practical and comprehensive book on the self-management of health conditions developed by a team at Stanford University, is one such example. These references will provide ways of thinking that can open people up to the possibilities of a richer and more meaningful life. 

To what extent can the patient be truly engaged if the physicians, nurses, and the rest of the team are not fully on board? Creating an environment where the individual with the health condition is fully engaged begins with engaging the doctors and the rest of the health care team. Authentic listening that’s two-way is absolutely required for an individual to arrive at a place where he can make the choices he needs to manage his care. 

The language that people use send strong messages beneath the words. What does “chronic illness” mean to someone who hears it over and over again? What if doctors and nurses were to focus on a problem-solving approach and present the world of kidney failure as: “This is an ongoing health condition. It’s not going away. And here are the choices we have to manage it. Let’s see what works best for you.”

The Bridge website offers resources as well as original video vignettes designed to open up this conversation, raise awareness, and affect positive change.

Step #2: The patient. Unless a person really takes on his health condition, accepts the responsibility, and becomes a partner in the management of his condition, optimal outcomes will continue to be elusive. If people take on the notion that this is the end­­––the end-stage, the end of life––and stay there, they will not only be treated  (albeit unintentionally) as a victim, but also eventually become one.

A problem-solving approach is crucial. A can-do attitude is crucial. Anything that can be done to foster that will help serve people. The technology is here. Let’s take a fresh look at what’s going on in the renal field and move it forward. 

Be well. Be strong. Be here.

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