In remission from kidney cancer, Thierry Garcia-Avrilleau will run 100 km to raise awareness of screening during the Foulées du Renin on Saturday March 16 in Nîmes

Thierry Garcia-Avrilleau will run 100 km on Saturday March 16 to raise awareness about kidney disease screening.

President of the France Rein association (Occitanie Gard Lozère), he is committed to prevention and sport in chronic illness.

Twenty years of decathlon under your belt, a sportsman's lifestyle, iron health, insatiable energy and… the sky is falling on your head! "In August 2022, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer",says Thierry Garcia-Avrilleau, a 61-year-old engineer, who became, last October, president of the France Rein association in Occitanie Gard Lozère (100 members), to alert and mobilize about kidney pathologies, while he is in remission from his cancer. "This cancer can affect anyone. I was lucky, he slips.

He runs the Diagonal of Fools after removing a kidney

Lucky to have been detected quite early when he had no symptoms, migraines and cold sweats that they thought were benign . But a bad feeling… and a urine analysis which ultimately reveals traces of blood in the urine. "I still had a tumor measuring 8 cm and weighing almost 300 grams! We removed the right kidney." And he took up sport again, after struggling for six months to find a nephrologist to follow him. "2023 was even my most intense sporting year" where it connects the UTMB, a demanding trail around Mont Blanc, and the Diagonale des fous in Reunion, a legendary trail  which bears its name so well. Ignoring medical recommendations to exercise in a more reasonable manner. 

This kidney cancer, whose incidence is increasing (nearly 15,000 cases per year), he does not know where it comes from, supposes "the impact of pollution, food". It is now the fifth most common cancer after breast, lung, colorectal and prostate. "Don't wait until you have hard to act", insists Thierry Garcia-Avrilleau. This cancer is asymptomatic, when it is detected it is often already metastasized.

Les Foulées du rein Saturday March 16

Les Foulées du rein is both a sporting event and a screening action for kidney diseases. They were imagined by Thierry Garcia-Avrilleau, a great sportsman, in remission from kidney cancer and now president of France Rein in Occitanie. This race is open to a maximum of 300 runners (or walkers), at a rate of thirty people per hour so as not to disrupt city traffic. "Several distances are proposed: 6, 10, 20 or 42 km around the Ecusson starting from Place Saint-Charles on Boulevard Gambetta". Thierry Garcia will embark on 100 km, a challenge lasting around fifteen hours. "My goal: one hundred screenings on the day."

Registration on site the same day during a time slot between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or on www.fouleesdurein.org

10% of the population with chronic kidney disease

And it's not just kidney cancer. In France, 10% of the population is affected by chronic kidney disease and 3% by insufficiency. "Renal insufficiency is the archetype of the invisible illness which advances slyly, without any warning sign,he alerts. Hypertension and diabetes 2 are aggravating factors. Diseases which, at an advanced stage, require dialysis or even a kidney transplant.

"The vice-president of the association has been a transplant recipient for 23 years, it's a message of hope when the lifespan of a transplanted kidney is ten to fifteen years, he says before emphasizing his new fight: prevention. .. so easy.  "A simple urine analysis which detects around ten markers and a blood pressure measurement". But because not everyone ;#39;will not go to the hospital (screening organized Thursday March 14, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Carémeau University Hospital), he imagined Les Foulées du rein this Saturday March 16   nbsp;(read box) "an original way of doing prevention in the street, where all residents live". So get your sneakers on! Run for yourself, for the sick and, "above all, make a stop under the screening tent at Place Saint-Charles".&amp ;nbsp;

"We fall into chronic illness in a violent way. But you have to resume physical activity to live better, smiles Thierry Garcia-Avrilleau, insatiable runner. Saturday March 16, he will run 100 km "but quietly at 8 km/h!" Like last year .