THUNDER BAY -- Delilah Quill has walked from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg and back, just trying to get back home.
Quill moved to Thunder Bay in 2005 due to kidney failure and has been unable to return to Deer Lake First Nation since.
She was among a dozen Deer Lake members who hoped funds raised over the walk could purchase a dialysis machine for the community, located 150 kilometres north of Red Lake.
"Sometimes I get homesick and I want to get back. Even my kids have to move here just to be with me so I'll live longer and I'm glad all my grandkids are here," she said.
"Up there I would get more nutritious food like fish and geese. Up here, we don't have that."
Deer Lake Chief Roy Dale Meekis said 15 per cent of the 1,000 Deer Lake members require dialysis. Many of them are living in Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout and Winnipeg.
The walk from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg raised only $1,000 of the $31,000 cost and although the funds raised on the return trip have yet to be counted, it's clear more efforts will be needed.
"This isn't the end, it's just the beginning," Meekis said.
A meeting is scheduled between Meekis and officials at the Thunder Bay Health Sciences Centre on Friday. He's hoping the regional hospital will be wiling to contribute capital support and training to the project.
"They really don't look at our communities as a priority when we're low in numbers but yet we want to raise awareness of this need we have in our home communities," he said.
"Many of our people have been forced to go into the city to access the dialysis machine. They want to go home. They miss their homeland, their community but they're forced to come out. If we had a dialysis machine, they could come home and be in their homeland with their children, their grandchildren and their communities."
A trust is being established to accept donations. Anyone wishing to assist can contact the Deer Lake First Nation band office.
