Virna Haryanto

My Red Socks Challenge for Kidney Health

🧦❤️ Introducing… the DIALYSIS DIVAS! 

Two friends. Two different types of dialysis. One shared journey… and apparently, now we have a team name! 

Meet Therese and Virna. 💕

We met through parkrun — probably thinking we were just there to walk, run, collect another parkrun and have a good time. Little did we know we'd find a friendship built on something much bigger ❤️

Therese is on haemodialysis (HD) and Virna is on peritoneal dialysis (PD).

Different dialysis. Different routines. But somehow, we just get each other.

We understand the tired days when the body says, “Nope, not today.” ☺️
The appointments. The blood tests. The needles and bags. The numbers. The dialysis schedules. The uncertainty. The waiting… and all those not-so-glamorous things happening behind the scenes.

Hence the name Dialysis Divas… because apparently dialysis wasn't enough drama already.💃

But here's the thing…

Kidney disease is part of our lives, but we don't want it to become ALL of our lives❤️

So we keep showing up.

We walk. We laugh. We do parkrun. We encourage each other. We celebrate the good days, support each other through the harder ones and keep making memories while we wait and hope for our chance at a kidney transplant. 🌱

And yes… our transplant teams actually cheer us on! 🙌😂

They encourage us to keep active and keep moving as we're able — and parkrun has become one of the ways we do exactly that. We're certainly not chasing world records 🤣. Some days we're stronger, some days we slow right down, and some days simply showing up feels like an achievement.

For us, it's not about how fast we go. It's about still being able to GO❤️

And this October, the Dialysis Divas are putting on our RED SOCKS! 🧦❤️

We're taking on the Red Socks Challenge together — not because we're super athletes (although the word Divas might suggest otherwise 😂💅), but because we want to use our kilometres and our stories to help raise awareness about kidney disease and what life on dialysis can really look like.

Along the way, we'll share a little of both sides of dialysis — HD and PD — the serious bits, the funny bits, the struggles, the wins, the transplant journey and everyday life in between.

Because dialysis may keep us alive…

but living is what we're choosing to do with that life ❤️

If sharing our journey helps someone understand kidney disease a little better, gives another person on dialysis some encouragement, or simply reminds someone going through a difficult season that there can still be laughter, friendship and beautiful moments along the way… then every kilometre will be worth it.

So here we go…

🧦 Red socks ON.
💃 Diva mode ON.
🫘 Kidneys… well, they're doing their best. 😂

Dialysis Divas — different dialysis, same hope, and still moving forward ❤️

Come walk this journey with us. 

Please donate to support a better future for people with kidney disease.

God Bless🙏💚