Submitted photo Jeff Griffin, along with 14 of his friends and family, took part in the Walk For Kidney Health on Sunday in Buffalo. The group walked in memory of Griffin’s late wife, Margaret, who died last year.

A Dunkirk man raised more than $2,000 in support of kidney health over the weekend.

Jeff Griffin, along with friends and family, took part in the Walk For Kidney Health on Sunday in Buffalo. Griffin said the walk was in memory of his late wife, Margaret, who passed away in March 2022 due to Calciphylaxis — a rare disease with no known cure.

This year, the family raised $2,078 for the Kidney Foundation of Western New York.

Griffin said he participated in the walk along with 14 of his friends and family, and that the walk went very well. The location had changed slightly from the year before but was still at the Outer Harbor in Buffalo.

Griffin, along with his friends and family, raised money through people sponsoring their group.

While the money goes to the Kidney Foundation of Western New York, Griffin said it will also be used for more specific things.

“It will go towards people who can’t afford to be on dialysis and help with transportation for them,” he said. “There are certain things this money will pay for if people can’t afford it.”

Griffin said kidney disease is personal to him following his wife’s battle with Calciphylaxis. He said she got the disease following a kidney transplant 12 years prior, and the disease required her to undergo heart surgery.

Griffin himself has also been affected by kidney cancer; he had his left kidney removed last April.

“I do this walk not only for me and to honor her memory, but for the people who are still alive and still going through this,” he said. “I met a girl from Forestville who is 31 and in need of transplants and is on dialysis.”

Right now there is still only one doctor from Boston who is working on finding a cure for Calciphylaxis.

Griffin’s main goal remains bringing awareness to the disease through events such as the walk and the scholarship started last year in his wife’s name.

“The first one was actually given out this year,” Griffin said. “Kyler Huels from Dunkirk won it this year. Awareness is still my main goal.”

Griffin said he also had a new T-shirt printed for the walk this year. He wants to make sure people are aware that kidney disease is on the rise, and encourages people to consider becoming kidney donors.

“Reach out to ECMC and Hamot. Find a way to do it,” Griffin said. “It would be a blessing to so many. A live donor is better than a cadaver one. With a live donor, there is 25 to 35 years that you can get out of the kidney. With a cadaver there is a five to 15 year life expectancy.”