Dying Young: A Little Girl’s Tragic Struggle Leads to Funding for Juvenile Kidney Disease

Las Vegas, NV, October 25, 2009 --(PR.com)-- In August 1996, a ten year old girl asked her mother if she was going to die.

Thus began her parents’ long and painful journey to give their daughter back her life.

Maggie McCallum had contracted a rare auto-immune disease, which attacked her kidneys, finally killing off her vital organs. She fought the disease for six years and then at age sixteen, she was given a life-saving kidney transplant.

By the time she was eighteen, Maggie had influenced people all over state about the importance of giving back. She addressed audiences at the Australian Kidney Foundation Balls, and also worked with other children going on dialysis on how to overcome the fear.

“Maggie’s dream was to become a famous model so she could make lots of money and use it to fund research for kidney disease,” her father and co-founder of the Magdalene Foundation, Andrew McCallum said. “She had been given the chance to go to Italy for a photo shoot for a famous fashion magazine, which would launch her career and help her realize her dream of funding research.”

But just when her biggest dream was about to evolve, Maggie tragically died in a motor car accident.

“Sometimes it’s hard to fathom fate, it all seems so pointless and she had suffered for so long only to seemingly lose anyway,” Andrew said. “But losing was never in Maggie’s vocabulary and the effect that she had on people both in Australia and overseas was awesome. Inspired by her story, even people who have never met her, are picking up her dream and running with it.”

The power of Maggie’s dream gave birth to the Magdalene Foundation.

Founded by Maggie’s parents, this nonprofit organization is run solely by volunteers, who are dedicated to fulfilling a little girl’s dream of raising funds for research into kidney disease in children so they can have a better chance at life than she did.

“We created this foundation to raise funding and awareness for juvenile kidney disease and to initially find enough money for the annual salary/wage payment of a senior laboratory assistant,” Andrew said. “Successful progress of any disease cannot be achieved without research and this is one of our key goals.”

The principal source of income for the Magdalene Foundation is derived from its annual Ball, where tickets are bought and patrons bid for auction items of all kinds and purchase raffles for prizes.

According to Andrew, there is not enough research into kidney disease in Australia compared to other more prolific diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, particularly with children and young people. And yet, the foundation’s crusade for achieving additional funding for kidney research is fraught with many challenges.

“We need to be able to achieve the annual dollar target in full or more despite a competitive (and slightly recessed) claim on the Australian charity dollars,” Andrew said. “We also need to be able to create and determine better strategies to get more sponsorship, donations and Ball patrons. Heavily dependent upon volunteers, we need to work on attracting additional quality people to assist with the above. ”

As a result of a brand new, global initiative launched by the world’s leading business and executive coaching firm, ActionCOACH, Keith Collins has now come to the rescue of this organization with the goal of helping them raise funds and overcome key challenges.

Slated for launch on October 1, 2009, Coaching for a Cause is a global, six-month cause-related marketing campaign, which is bringing the proven, tested systems ActionCOACH has been successfully using for over a decade and half in the for-profit sector to the not-for-profit and charitable sector of the economy. By offering a combined coaching value of $1.8 million, top ActionCOACH Business Coaches from around the world will help these organizations together raise an additional $2.5 million in donations and funds. This program is a brainchild of the company’s founder and CEO Brad Sugars, who identified a need for this service owing to the current downturn.

With the expectation that coaching will help them overcome their challenges and place further direction and focus on the goals sought for, Andrew McCallum and the Foundation are grateful for the Coaching for a Cause opportunity.

“Coaching for a Cause is a wonderful initiative because many young charity groups like ours need direction, guidance and strategies,” he said. “There is plenty of available dollars around the world, but some guidance on how to tap into it is extremely valuable. The coaching time to be donated is of great value to such a group in our position.”

Keith Collins on his part is passionate about children’s causes and plans to donate 4-5 hours a month to the Magdalene Foundation.

“My client has been operating for only a few years, with total donations of $45K last year; I would like to see them achieve $500K over the next 12 months and have the strategies and systems in place for the Foundation to grow year over year,” he said.

Coaching for a Cause is an innovative, new program from ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business and executive coaching firm that makes pro-bono coaching available to charities and non-profits worldwide. To learn more, go to coachingforacause.org or subscribe to RSS news feeds at news.actioncoach.com.

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