Bill Peckham, long-time patient advocate, dies in Seattle

Bill Peckham

Bill Peckham, who passed on a trip with his family to raft down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon at age 15 but did it 35 years later – while performing dialysis – died Jan. 18. He was 55.

“I am very sad to share news of the passing last night of Bill Peckham,” wrote Northwest Kidney Centers CEO Joyce Jackson in a eulogy on the dialysis company’s website. “He was Northwest Kidney Centers’ emeritus Board of Trustees chair and maybe the nation’s most famous dialysis patient. ... Bill said often, ‘Dialysis should not take over our lives. Dialysis should enable us to live the life we were meant to live.’”

Jackson said Peckham led the effort to raise funds from the NKC research task force to prompt the board of trustees to commit to founding the Kidney Research Institute. “Today we have this stupendous research powerhouse. Bill was absolutely passionate about the need for kidney research to make life better for the future,” Jackson wrote. “He also suggested the idea and made the first financial donation so Northwest Kidney Centers could wire all units for internet access for patients’ use during treatment – a first in the world in 1999.”

Joyce Jackson

Peckham developed the idea of NKC’s annual Kidney Health Expo in the mid-2000s, encouraging people to learn about kidney disease and served on the NKC’s Board of Directors, the Foundation Board and as president of the Patients Association. He was the first dialysis patient to chair NKC’s board of trustees. “I am so fortunate I got to walk for two decades with Bill Peckham. I will miss him deeply,” Jackson wrote.

The rafting trip on the Colorado River in July 2013 was one of many adventures Peckham took during his lifetime, travelling to 34 countries and finding new experiences in dialysis care. In 2007, he started a blog on his own website called The Sharp End of the Needle, that included stories about his travels, debates about policy issues and the ESRD Program and interviews with kidney care staff and fellow patients about ways to get the most out of dialysis. “Nobody signs up for (dialysis) as a lifestyle,” Peckham said in a talk he presented after his Grand Canyon rafting trip, but “being on dialysis really didn’t impact my vision of the future” in carrying on with life. He worked full time for 22 years in the event production industry building conference exhibits before retiring in March 2017.

“He was one of smartest men I’ve ever known,” said Doug Johnson, MD, vice-chair of the Board of Directors for Dialysis Clinic Inc. who traveled with Peckham on the Grand Canyon trip. “He was just a person you wanted to be with. He was never satisfied with average care. He always wanted to push us to not see dialysis as a default.”

In a blog recounting his thoughts about a photo taken of him on July 4 during his rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, Peckham wrote: “I will cherish these memories for the rest of my days but I also received something from the trip I cherish even more, something I did not expect. (T)he trip gave me a deep sense of gratitude. Seeing the Canyon was a gift. I am so thankful for this gift. People all along the way said yes. Yes, you can do it. Yes, we will take you. Yes, I will go ... thank you, thank you, thank you. This photo is the perfect celebration of July Fourth because I see my Independence from the tyranny of incenter conventional dialysis. In this photo, I see my Independence from the widely held expectations of what it means to need dialysis. I see myself living the life I was meant to live.”

A celebration of life for Bill Peckham will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24 at Northwest Kidney Centers Seattle clinic, 548 15th Ave., Seattle, Wash. To watch a video series about his travels and thoughts about life with dialysis, visit https://www.rsnhope.org/rsn-blog/remembering-bill-peckham/. – by Mark E. Neumann

Reference: https://www.nwkidney.org/news/remembering-bill-peckham/

https://www.dciinc.org/newsroom/billpeckhams-journey/