HEALTHY LIVING


Alisha Khan was diagnosed with kidney disease when she was four years old. Her childhood was spent in hospitals, seeing doctors, nurses drawing blood—not doing what the other kids were doing. It was devastating for her mom that her little girl had to suffer in this way. They came to rely on Dr. Rick Kaskel, Chief of Pediatric Nephrology at Montefiore Children’s Hospital in the Bronx for Alisha’s care. Dr. Kaskel is also the Medical Director of The Ruth Gottscho Dialysis and Children’s Kidney Program at Frost Valley. He encouraged Alisha’s mom, Sharda, to send Alisha to Frost Valley. At first, Sharda was very nervous about sending her daughter to camp “I was scared, I called two and three times a day!” remembers Sharda. Alisha was nervous too, but when she arrived at camp she realized there were other kids like her and everyone was treated the same, she felt a sense of relief. Alisha bunked with a cabin of girls that went to campfires, hiked in the woods, and walked at night with flashlights. For the first time Alisha wasn’t the one that was sick. Sharda says “Alisha came away from her summer at Frost Valley with a sense of independence, no longer timid and shy and we both learned that she could get along without me. Frost Valley gave so much to both of us.”


ALISHA KHAN (BELOW RIGHT), AGE 13, NEW YORK CITY, AND DR. KASKEL (BELOW LEFT), CHIEF OF PEDIATRIC NEPHROLOGY AT MONTEFIORE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL DIRECTOR AT FROST VALLEY YMCA


7 | frostvalley.org


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