Father riding around the world for kidney disease awareness - Canada

CTV News

Stephane Etienne is being joined by Aymeric Zito on a mission to ride a motorcycle around the world. They're pictured here in Ottawa Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012.

When his son was diagnosed with kidney disease, Stephane Etienne decided to try and help others prevent that diagnosis – by riding a motorcycle around the world.

Now almost halfway through that goal, Etienne made a stop in Ottawa on his awareness-raising tour Thursday.

“Nine countries, over 35,000 kilometres . . . It's a long time in the saddle,” he said. “It's very difficult physically, mentally."

Unlike many other rides or runs, Etienne isn’t raising any money. Instead, he said he’s raising awareness of both the disease and organ donation.

Dr. Deborah Zimmerman said kidney disease isn’t as widely known as cancer and heart disease.

"Kidney disease is often silent,” she said. “There's an estimated 2 million people in Canada who have kidney disease and many of them don't even know.”

Read more: http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/father-riding-around-the-world-for-kidney-disease-awareness-1.927260#ixzz24Php5w7r