Outpouring of support for Sask. 5-year-old with rare kidney disease

A pre-schooler from Warman has gotten some unlikely support as he battles a rare kidney disease, and the help started with a small idea in the community and spread all the way down to Regina.

Thanks to generous donors, his journey to get a kidney transplant out of province will be a bit easier.

Five-year-old Logan McCorkell was given a life-threatening diagnosis when he was only two. It’s called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and it only happens to seven people in a million.

“It’s a really rare kidney disease and there’s no cure, and we were told when he was diagnosed, we just had to wait for failure and keep him comfortable,” Sarah McCorkell, Logan’s mom told CTV News.

He spent most of his toddler life in hospital. His kidney did end up failing in 2022 — a kidney transplant imminent.

“Within one week his kidney went from 70 per cent function to done, and it quit,” she says.

It was then that a small seed was planted at his Warman daycare — staff wanting to do something to help, so they started a Go Fund Me page.

“It snowballed in a good way obviously, we didn’t realize what kind of support we would get but we ended up with so many people reaching out,” Shelby Smith, owner and teacher at Happy Tots Preschool told CTV News.

Shelby Smith, owner and teacher at Happy Tots Preschool. (Carla Shynkaruk / CTV News)

That seed started to grow with Warman and surrounding area pitching in.

A local Grade 7 class in Warman that partners with the preschool also jumped on board, collecting loonies and something to cheer him up during his many hospital visits.

“They did this this amazing basket for him, with toys and books for him for when he’s in the hospital,” McCorkell said.

The support for Logan gained momentum. It was at a cheerleading competition on the weekend where it took another unexpected twist.

Participants from the Regina Rebels group used classrooms to get ready and one of those classrooms belonged to the Grade 7 class that was raising money for Logan. A note for students on their whiteboard got noticed.

“They had some information about a loonies for Logan fundraiser they were planning — one of our athletes anonymously left $5 with a note saying for Logan,” said Eric Bestvater, owner of Regina Rebels Cheerleading Athletics.

That classroom fundraiser had nothing to do with the cheer competition, but the seed of generosity kept spreading. The grade seven teacher Victoria Dyck contacted Bestvater to thank the athlete for the random act of kindness.

“It was really touching and inspiring, so my first instinct was to do more,” Bestvater said.

He told families from his Regina group he would match all donations they made to Logan’s Go Fund Me page. From that group alone, along with Bestvater’s matching contribution, it’s now at $2,000 and counting.

Both Logan‘s parents will be taking time off from work for three months while Logan is getting a kidney transplant in Edmonton. They are expecting word on a date any time now, the total of $11,000 raised with all fundraising efforts so far will go to help with family expenses during that time.

“I am overwhelmed, but super grateful. I have cried many times out of happiness and honestly, we cannot thank everyone enough for this," McCorkell said.

Logan has plans to be a firefighter or doctor when he grows up. He wants to help people; likely unaware of the fact that he will be paying it forward.