To look at Brenda Boulet you’d never think she was a transplant recipient.

She beams as she talks, with a wide smile on her face, and she positively glows.

In her 40s, the Red Deer mother of two is an avid runner and career woman, who works at the Credit Union.

She was one of the more than 120 people who took part Sunday in the Second Annual Give the Gift of Life walk and run for the Red Deer and District Unit of the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

Boulet wasn’t alone in her run. Team Brenda included her husband Richard and 14 of her friends and colleagues, all wearing Team Brenda T-shirts.

It’s the first time they’ve put a team together for the event, which included either a 2 K walk or a 5 K run at McKenzie Trail.

It was Boulet’s friend and neighbour Robin Brochu, who pushed her to do the run. And the team grew from there. The group raised $1,430 for the cause. In all, the event raised $45,817 for research and awareness campaigns.

It’s been nine years since Boulet had her kidney transplant.

She was diagnosed with a type of kidney disease at age 30 and it got progressively worse. At age 38 she started two and a half months of dialysis. Even with tubes in her abdomen, clearing her system of toxins four times a day, Boulet kept working and looked after her two daughters Crystal and Nicole, with her husband Richard at her side.

Then in early July 1999 she got a phone call from Calgary. They had a kidney for her. They rushed to Calgary, arriving at 10 a.m. She was in surgery by noon and out by 4 p.m.

The transplant has meant so much to her life.

“It’s a wonderful gift,” Boulet said. “I am fortunate to have a kidney that is working and functioning just fine. It has kept me alive, happy and healthy and given me more energy. And I’m able to do what I need to do.”

It’s given her time to be with her husband and daughters and her two dogs Roxy (a lab cross) and Gus (a Jack Russell Terrier).

She said she still takes it one day at a time, as she did when her disease was at its worst.

“I just take each day as it comes and live each day to the fullest,” Boulet said.

She said she would like to encourage people to sign their organ donor cards.

“You don’t realize what a difference you can make to somebody,” she said. “I certainly appreciate it.”

It’s a message Linda Lumsden hopes gets out to the public too.

As the co-ordinator of fund development for the Red Deer and District Unit of the Kidney Foundation, she said the money raised is needed for research, but what is most important about the Give the Gift of Life walk and run is that it raises awareness.

Lumsden said she wants people to understand how important it is for them to sign their organ donor cards and talk to their families about their wish to donate their organs.

Contact Stacy O’Brien at sobrien@reddeeradvocate.com