1/5/2009 - Kidney Transplant Recipient Donates New Prom Dresses to Teens

GLENDALE, CA (January 2, 2009)—Holly Cummings fought a family history of kidney disease until she was diagnosed with renal failure in eighth grade at the age of 13.   Now 20, Holly’s own sense of gratitude for a kidney transplant, has led her to think more about other people than about herself.  When she heard that the 10th Annual Renal Teen Prom needed prom dresses to give away this year, she went out and bought three, then donated them to the Renal Support Network (RSN) which created and organizes the prom.

 Holly, who lives in Corona, has attended the Renal Teen Prom for several years.  The Prom is a dinner, dance and entertainment for teens with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and has been held at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks for the past nine years.  This year it will be held January 18.

 One of the benefits of attending is to be able to get a free prom dress if the teen’s family can’t afford to buy one.  Part of going to the prom is to look and feel festive for a night of just being a normal teen. But often, hospital and doctor bills, medications and health care are overwhelming to the families of patients, and a prom dress is not in the budget.

 Each year, RSN goes around to various pediatric units in hospitals and offers teens with CKD who are planning to go to the prom a time to try on the donated dresses. 

 “It’s an exciting time for the teens,” stated Lori Hartwell, founder and president of RSN who came up with the idea of the prom.   “They come into the room with all the dresses stacked in sizes and it’s like a wonderland of beautiful dresses!” 

 Hartwell is a kidney survivor since the time she was two.   “I never attended my high school prom,” she says.  “I’ve had twelve years of dialysis and three transplants, and I know how hard it can be for the teens just to feel normal for a little while.”

 Holly, who plans to be a missionary, said, “Dialysis gave me nightmares, and I was really grateful to my mom who gave me one of her kidneys when I was a freshman in high school. I felt like the transplant gave me a second chance.  I stopped living just for myself and began living for others.”  

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 RSN is caravanning the dresses to UCLA Medical Center Dialysis Unit January 4, to Millers Childrens Hospital on January 5, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles on January 8, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange on January 10, and to Loma Linda Hospital on January 12.

 For further information about the Prom, call (866) 903-1728 or check the web for an invitation RSNhope.org.

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