new heights

A population in need McFarlane is determined to open a wellness center with services geared specifically toward addicts and alcoholics with kidney failure. Given the causal relationship between substance abuse and kidney disease, the target population is substantial. He encountered one potential client in the waiting room at the dialysis clinic, someone McFarlane considers the exact type of person who could benefit most from his efforts. The man, an alcoholic, told McFarlane he had been coming in for dialysis three days a week for 13 years. He had never been able to stay sober long enough to be considered for a transplant, and had resigned himself to routine dialysis indefinitely. Hearing that McFarlane owned sober houses, the man asked for help. “I think about him every day,” says McFarlane. “I still see his face. Thirteen years? There’s nothing right about that.”

“My goal is to be able to have them walk to their doctor...with their head up high, cleaned up, with a sense of satisfaction and joy in their hearts.” -Greg McFarlane

Recovery = Wellness In order to get on the list to receive a kidney transplant, an individual must pass a barrage of tests examining mental, physical and spiritual health - all of which happen to be areas explicitly addressed by holistic recovery and wellness principles. McFarlane hopes the wellness center will provide an avenue through which patients learn to work toward a life of recovery and achieve the health standards necessary for a transplant. “My goal is to be able to have them walk to their doctor...with their head up high, cleaned up, with a sense of satisfaction and joy in their hearts,” says McFarlane. It’s the same joy and satisfaction McFarlane says he felt during Kidney Rock, a culmination of his own unrelenting recovery and drive to help others.The emotions were especially fitting for the occasion, considering McFarlane went in for his transplant the very next day.

17