10-YEAR-OLD BRANDON SHAFER GOING HOME AFTER KIDNEY TRANSPLANT;
DONOR WAS HIS FOURTH GRADE TEACHER

Brandon’s kidneys were ravaged by life-threatening polycystic kidney disease (PKD)

(Chicago, IL) May 9, 2006 - Ten-year-old Brandon Shafer is heading home this week after a successful kidney transplant. Brandon’s donor kidney came from his fourth grade teacher, Patsy Donahue.

Brandon’s mother learned about problems with her son’s kidneys before he was born. But Brandon was not diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (PKD) until he was 8 years old.

There are two forms of PKD. The more prevalent, ADPKD, is the world’s most common, life-threatening genetic disease. For 600,000 Americans, fluid-filled cysts grow on the kidneys. Over time, these cysts get bigger and multiply, often leading to kidney failure. Parents with the dominant form of PKD have a 50% chance of passing the disease on to each of their children.

ARPKD is a relatively rare form of PKD that affects 1 in 10,000 babies and often leads to death in the first months of life. Parents who carry the ARPKD gene have a 25% chance of passing the disease onto each of their children.

“While transplantation is an option for patients like Brandon, there is no treatment or cure for polycystic kidney disease,” said PKD Foundation President & CEO Dan Larson during a news conference at Children’s Memorial Hospital. “Until one is found, PKD will threaten the lives of every generation of every family living with the disease.”

The not-for-profit PKD Foundation is the only organization, worldwide, dedicated to finding a treatment and a cure for this devastating disease. While Brandon and Ms. Donahue recover from their surgeries, Brandon’s classmates at Oster-Oakview Intermediate Middle School in New Lenox, IL are studying PKD, with textbooks and materials provided by the PKD Foundation. For more information about PKD and the PKD Foundation, visit www.pkdcure.org or call 1-800-PKD-CURE.