Keene State’s Bleam Walking for a Cause

From Stuart Kaufman, Sports Information: Walking used to be a major ordeal for Nancy Bleam. A member of the athletic training staff for the past 12 years at Keene State, Bleam readily recalls a time when, unable to breathe, she had to stop three times while walking down Appian Way.

Bleam has no problems walking these days. In fact, she plans to be front and center on Sunday in Middlebury, Vt., for one of the most important walks of her life — the Walk for a Cure — a fundraiser for polycystic kidney disease (PKD).

Bleam will be among thousands of people who will take part in the three-mile walk that will begin simultaneously at noon at 23 sites around the country. Wearing T-shirts that say “survivor or fighter,” participants will begin their route by walking through a field of flowers, bought in honor of or in memory of someone who has died from the disease that destroys working kidney tissue.

Teaching athletic training classes and helping more than 300 student athletes recover and recuperate from injuries on a daily basis, Bleam began experiencing major health issues in 2006. Twenty-five years ago, she was diagnosed with PKD, the same disease that caused the death of her mother, Evelyn Berry Bleam, and has been found in her younger sister, Monica Roney, and nephew, Justin, who live in St. Joseph’s, Michigan.

She had both of her kidneys removed in July 2007, when doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock transplanted her cousin Jenny’s left kidney into Bleam. “I went from dying to completely new,” Bleam said. “She’s 10 years younger than me, so I got a good deal. It’s a gift I intend to keep.”

After taking some time off to build up her immune system and her strength, she returned to full-time work in October 2007. Bleam, who calls athletic training her passion, says she literally grew up in a training room. Her father, Don, worked for the Detroit Lions, the Baltimore Bullets, and the University of Michigan before moving back to his hometown and working as the athletic trainer at Adrian High School.

Bleam can now walk as fast as she wants and no longer gets winded or feels pain when she is stretching Keene State athletes. She has no dietary restrictions and, except for few anti-rejection pills and a need to take a flu shot once a year, is back to living as normal a life as can be expected, given her life-changing experience.

Little things are no longer taken for granted. “This means so much to me,” she said about Sunday’s walk. “I’ve never been able to do it. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to breathe and walk.”

Courtesy photo
Nancy Bleam