RUMFORD – The Greater Rumford Area Dialysis Alliance wants to distribute funds to kidney patients in the River Valley area. A special ceremony to thank the local legislators who tried to locate the facility in the River Valley, and to hand out funds to about a dozen local dialysis patients, has been set for 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19, at the Local 900 union hall in Rumford.

With the area’s newest dialysis treatment center now open in Wilton for more than a year and half, GRADA member Jean Doherty said the remaining money from effort to locate a dialysis center in the River Valley will be given to those who would have used it for such things as gasoline to get to centers in Wilton or Lewiston.

Several thousand dollars was raised about three years ago to pay a consultant and a lawyer to fight for siting the facility in the Rumford area. After paying these bills, Doherty said, about $2,000 remains for the dozen of so people in the Rumford area who now travel to Wilton. Some continue to travel to Lewiston for treatment. Those eligible for a portion of the funding have received letters from GRADA notifying them of the availability.

Doherty said the group wants to thank state Sen. Bruce Bryant, D-Oxford, and state Rep. John Patrick, D-Rumford, for their efforts to try to get the facility in the River Valley. Bryant took a leadership role in the effort. The state’s Department of Human Services approved a certificate of need for construction of a dialysis center in Wilton in late 2001. The new facility, known as the Umbagog Dialysis Center, and owned by Fresenius Medical Care, opened at the Routes 2 and 4 location in January 2003.

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