Kim Sorensen hasn't added a story.

I don’t like to show any weakness. I have always fought hard to support my family and it is hard for me to admit that now they support me. Here is my story.

After raising my daughter as a single parent since she was 1, I met Denyse, the love of my life and we planned to marry in July 2014. I have worked a long time as a career salesman. And for the last 10+ years my career was doing quite well. I now have three beautiful children, a wife and life was GREAT!

But in June of 2014, I lost my job. I had been feeling sick a lot and was let go because I could no longer perform my duties. My extended benefits were lost with the job.

I also had an imminent wedding in July 2014 and had bills from that. I cashed in my retirement savings to pay off our debts and hold us over until I could find a way to get back to work.

That was not to be… two weeks after the wedding, I became very ill and developed End Stage Renal Disease. A complication of type 1 diabetes which I have had since I was 14. Needless to say, there was no honeymoon. I was hospitalized, given emergency surgery and I spent the next month in hospital receiving hemodialysis treatments.

One more surgery, and I now perform dialysis nine hours a day, seven days a week. I am left weakened and extremely winded, and the muscles and tendons in my legs and feet are damaged to the point that it is difficult to walk. I have to use special braces at night and during the day to help me walk and hopefully regain and retain some mobility. These braces are quite expensive but necessary, (roughly 500 dollars).

I am now waiting for a Kidney/Pancreas transplant. I have several in-hospital specialist appointments each month, but my car is no longer road worthy and I have no means of fixing it. My wonderful, supportive wife, Denyse, works in a call center and covers all of our bills, but it is still not enough. Without an income, we are barely scraping by and I don’t know where May rent will come from, as EI will run out. My next step is to apply for CPP disability, with a 6-12 month waiting period. My family can’t make it through that waiting period without some help.

Although returning to work is next to impossible right now, I am going to return to school and renew my education to suit a career that I could still sustain with my family while living with this condition. I am positive that we can work our way forward on this difficult path,

I know there are many others in bad situations just like me. I wish I could help them all. I promise that any help given will be greatly appreciated and will be used to help get my family and I back on our feet .

Thank you so much for reading my story.

Derrick MacKenzie