The community unto itself on the shores of Deer Lake sees cottages, hotel units, camping sites, a community centre with indoor pool, tennis courts and a medical centre equipped with 16 dialysis stations laid out on 55 acres. Each of the 11 weeks the camp is open every summer is set aside for the patients of one or more dialysis units to spend a week at the camp with their families.

This Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the camp will welcome the general public for tours, music and lunch in celebration of 30 years of helping dialysis patients have as normal a vacation as possible.

Camp manager Steve Woolman was there when the first tree was cut to make way for the village. A high school friend who was a dialysis patient helped inspire him to volunteer. He helped out for three years before becoming a 27-year staff member and has watched the facility grow by leaps and bounds.

“We started off with three cottages and very basic facilities and have evolved into what we have today,” says Woolman. “There’s probably nothing comparable in the world.”

In 1972, the Hamilton East Lions rented three cottages in Parry Sound — two for families living with dialysis and one to house the dialysis machines. By 1974, 12 families enjoyed the concept in Dorset, with another 30 on a waiting list. When the Dorset Lions caught wind of this, they decided the Crown land they had acquired with the intention of constructing baseball diamonds could be put to a different use, and Dorset Lions Camp was born. The camp is funded by the Lions and Lioness Clubs of Ontario and the Kidney Foundation, with OHIP covering the patients’ medical costs. It costs families $300 per week to rent one of the 14 three-bedroom cottages and  $250 for one of the 15 hotel units. New hotel units were constructed over the past year with the help of inmates from Beaver Creek Institution, near Gravenhurst.

There are also trailer and camping spaces, while other patients choose to stay elsewhere in the area.

“We’ve even had people come in (for dialysis) while camping in Algonquin Park,” says Woolman.

The patients arrive for their stay on Sunday and depart the following Saturday. Nurses often accompany them from their home dialysis units. Dialysis takes place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

“It gives patients and families a chance to get back to normality for a week,” Woolman says. Learning that you will require dialysis, which means hours hooked up to a machine each week to purify the blood when the kidneys can no longer function properly, is life altering. Some patients have the added stress of awaiting a kidney transplant.

“Your life can get turned upside down when you find out you need dialysis,” says Woolman. “Some people lose their jobs. This gives them a chance to enjoy a week away from the everyday stress.”

Murray Sutherland knows something about that stress. This is the second summer he has visited the camp. He has been on dialysis since February 2007 following seven years of pre-dialysis care.

“It’s not at all easy for the average kidney patient to take a vacation,” says Sutherland, a resident of Sarnia. “If you want to go anywhere you have to make arrangements with the local dialysis unit so you can be a transient there. With kidney disease becoming more and more prevalent, units are increasingly full. It can be tough.”

He says there are cruises for dialysis patients, but they are quite costly.

When a nurse initially came around the dialysis unit with information about the camp, he wasn’t interested.

“I just had too much on my mind and had to get used to this new way of life,” he says. “It’s a long way to travel and I think some patients wonder if it will be for them.”

Sutherland is dialyzed three times per week, each session taking 3.5 hours. For the first few months, he had to drive over an hour to receive treatment in London, leading to a draining seven-hour day. He now receives treatment in Sarnia.

A social worker recommended the camp and he’s very happy he took the advice. He’s been able to explore the area and enjoys peaceful walks.

“Something like this, being able to get away from all the crap you go through when you’re on dialysis, really helps make the situation more bearable for patients,” he says. Sutherland is now an active member of the Kidney Foundation and will be taking part in this Saturday’s celebrations.

The camp sees about 125 visitors and staff on site a week during the 11-week summer season. A state-of-the-art water filtration system, emergency backup generator and on-site technician ensure the $25,000 dialysis machines work as well as any in the best hospital.

After adjusting to the bugs, the odd bear and being absent from her home base in Markham, head nurse Iyabo Hood is spending her second summer at the camp, maintaining the schedule and keeping the unit running like clockwork.

“For a lot of the patients, this is the first time they have had time away from their home hospital since starting dialysis,” says Hood. “Being away from home without all the pressure of dealing with another hospital really allows them to get the full benefit of a vacation experience.”

That experience is wide ranging depending on the patient and family.

“The patient could be the child or a grand- parent. The youngest patient we’ve had here is 16 months and the oldest was 92 years old,” says Woolman. “If the parent’s the one who needs dialysis, the kids are looked after. That gives the other parent a break.”

Counsellors Jessica McGahey and Sarah Connor are responsible for helping the kids have a memorable time. It’s a very busy summer of leading bingo tournaments and canoe excursions.

“I’ve cottaged on the lake all my life and have always wanted to work here,” says McGahey, a third-year nursing student at McMaster University.

“We have kids here from the city who have never been swimming and never been in a canoe,” says Connor, who just completed her first year at the University of Western Ontario. “We love taking the kids on canoe trips and letting them enjoy what I’ve always enjoyed, spending time up here each summer.”