The sad irony contained in one of the pieces of mail I opened on Monday, Sept. 24 – the day University of Maine ice hockey coach Shawn Walsh died of complications from renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer – has stayed with me all week.

The mail contained information about the Kidney Early Evaluation Program, which is offering a free health screening for anyone who believes they may be at risk for kidney disease.

All too many people are at risk of kidney disease, which is known as the “silent disease.”

Some people are considered to be at higher risk than others.

Anyone who answers yes to any of the following choices is encouraged to take advantage of a free screening program offered by the National Kidney Foundation of Maine.

If you have high blood pressure; diabetes; a parent, grandparent, brother or sister with high blood pressure; a parent, grandparent, brother or sister with diabetes; or a parent, grandparent, brother or sister with chronic kidney failure, you should register to participate in the Kidney Early Evaluation Program.

KEEP, as it is known, is designed to identify people at risk for kidney disease.

The free screening will be conducted from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Oct. 2, in Mason Auditorium at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

You are requested to preregister by calling Karen Burrell at NKF-Maine (800) 639-7220.

You should also be aware that the program is limited to just 35 participants. If you are an individual who could be considered at high risk for this disease, you should register as soon as possible.

The process takes no longer than 30 minutes and includes a brief consultation with a physician. Light refreshments will be provided.

This NKF program, now in its third year, is proving to be very successful and very well received, particularly in Maine, Burrell said.

With an original goal of running “three or four screenings this year,” she said, by the time the year ends the total number of screenings is expected to be eight.

“The program is booming,” she said. “In fact, we’re leading the entire county in the amount of KEEP screenings being conducted.”

The work is paying off for those at high risk of kidney disease.

At a screening of 31 people in Biddeford, for example, Burrell said 11 of those who attended were referred to physicians.

I extend to Shawn Walsh’s parents, Charles and Millie Walsh; his wife, Lynne; his children, siblings, family members, and that uncountable extended family known as “Maine Hockey,” my deepest condolences on the death of a man who brought glory and fame to the grand old state of Maine.

Perhaps because I have experienced expected and unexpected losses due to the insidious disease that took his life at age 46, I prayed for Shawn’s survival, but recognized that he was working to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.

He never gave up, I was told, not even at the end.

I expected no less of him.

Shawn Walsh put as much mental and physical effort into his personal life – into survival – as he did his professional life.

He made champions of others, and became one himself.

Perhaps one of the most positive legacies he and his family leave us are the contributions made to cancer research through Shawn’s willingness to take advantage of every opportunity offered him to try and find a cure for his disease.

Others will surely benefit from the work that has been done, from what was learned as he progressed through his treatment, and from the personal observations made by this dedicated, determined, highly-organized and optimistic individual.

I am even more deeply saddened by the realization this is the second son Charlie and Millie Walsh have lost, but heartened by rereading something I wrote about them during my days with the NEWS sports staff.

In an article about the Walsh family in October of 1993, the year Shawn’s Maine hockey team won the state university’s first NCAA Divison I National Championship, I wrote that “overcoming adversity” was one of the many traits Charlie and Millie had passed on to their children, because it was something they had had to do, themselves, many times, in their lives.

Their family scrapbook, I wrote, “contains moments of glory and fame along with times of sorrow and pain.”

The Walshes’ “experiences are universal,” I wrote about a family that had faced, among other difficulties, illness, death, and dislocation.

“The family is as familiar with success as it is with sorrow,” I added.

“But, if you let them,” the parents told me at the time, “the joys can outnumber the sorrows.”

Overcoming adversity.

Recognizing the fact that, at some point in time, you will be able to reflect on the joys that can outnumber the sorrows.

That is what the members of the Walsh family are doing today.

The Maine Hockey family is following their lead.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.