LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville nonprofit is trying to spread awareness during National Kidney Month.

Mulligans Living Kidney Donors hosted an awareness event at Flanagan's on Baxter Avenue in the Highlands on Tuesday evening.

LeighAnn Saylor started Mulligans Living Kidney Donors when her husband was diagnosed with renal failure. The Mayo Clinic said a living kidney donor was hit best option because dialysis wouldn't have given him much freedom. 

Saylor's husband received a kidney from an old football teammate, which started her devotion to spreading awareness about kidney disease.

"We felt like we had to help other people," Saylor said.

In the past 10 years, the nonprofit has helped facilitate more than 200 transplants.

"If you have any kind of health issues at all, and even if you don't go get a physical, get checked," Saylor said. "If you have high blood pressure or any other conditions they can catch it in the beginning and slow it down and sometimes even stop it."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 15% of U.S. adults are estimated to have chronic kidney disease. The CDC reports nine in 10 adults with chronic kidney disease do not know they have the disease, while two in five adults with a severe form of the disease don't know they have it. 

Saylor said there are disparities in kidney disease detection for Black and Hispanic Americans. In September 2021, the American Kidney Foundation came out with new guidelines for the eGFR. The new guidelines removed the old practices of weighting Black Americans' results due to creatinine levels. 

"A lot of times they're told it would be too hard to match, that's not true," she said.

Part of the restaurant's proceeds from Tuesday went to the nonprofit. To learn more about Mulligans Living Kidney Donors, click here.

To learn more about kidney health, click here to visit the National Kidney Foundation.

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