Travis's battle against Chronic Kidney Failure

Travis has been battling end-stage kidney failure for almost ten years. After finishing school in November 2013, he spent three months in and out of doctors' appointments seeking answers to feeling generally unwell. Sadly though, in February 2014 he was flown to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and received the devastating news, he was in end-stage kidney failure and needed to start lifesaving dialysis treatment immediately. Unknown to him this was only the beginning of many battles to come.

Almost a decade later, after one failed kidney transplant, countless surgeries, and many hours in a dialysis chair, he is still no closer to ‘the gift of life’. Sadly, with no family members being a donor match, his rare blood type and high antibodies, the road to a transplant has been extremely difficult.

Travis’s dialysis treatment takes four hours a day, most days of the week. The treatment mimics the function of the kidney which takes all the toxins out of his blood.

Thankfully for the past five years, an ‘at home dialysis machine’ has been placed in their home and with the help of his beautiful wife Kayley, Travis has been able to do dialysis at home, being able to do this has given Travis the freedom to work full time and not work around hospital schedules.

Now at 27 years old his dialysis access point (fistula) where the needles are placed each day to enable him to do dialysis, has failed.

Because of this, a central line to the heart (Permacath) has been put in, as an interim access point for dialysis, allowing him to be able to continue dialysis, however, due to the high risk of infection, doing dialysis in the hospital and dialysis clinics is the safest option.

At the start of March 2023, he underwent surgery to start another fistula in his other arm. The surgery was successful however devastatingly on Good Friday Travis found himself in the emergency room once again. After extensive testing, he received the news that there was a blood clot stopping blood flow, and sadly this second fistula had failed.

The next step is another surgery, creating a new ‘third fistula’ in his upper arm. Meaning more months in and out of the hospital, endless medical appointments and fingers crossed that this fistula will take and there will be no more setbacks while he waits for a kidney

transplant.

Even if, or when this takes, there is still an unknown stretch of time of when a kidney transplant will be a match for Trav. It has been nine, long, stretched-out years.

Although there is not much we can do to help, if we can take some of the financial pressure off this beautiful couple - I know how much your donation will be appreciated. The next six months are a scary time for Trav and Kayley, not knowing how much time he will be in the hospital and unable to work.

We know how tough times are in this current economy, and we understand that not everyone is in the financial position to donate. However, if you could instead take the time to become an organ donor - you would be potentially saving a person's life.

Thank you so much for your love and support. Your donation will help Travis to focus on healing and recovering from his surgeries so he's strong enough to receive a kidney transplant without the financial stress of medical treatments.