Help James pull through from his multi-organ transplant.

On 22 May this year, James Chapman underwent a life-saving transplant that means he will be able to eat for the first time in his life. In a gruelling 14 hour surgery at Austin Health in Melbourne, James was given a donated stomach, liver, duodenum, pancreas, and bowel in an incredible advanced multi-organ transplant.

One of twins, James was born with a very rare condition that means his digestive system doesn’t work. Throughout his childhood, his awesome doctors in Taupo, Waikato and Starship kept him alive with TPN – intravenously feeding nutrients directly into his bloodstream - along with fantastic care when complications put him in hospital, often for months at a time.

However, as he grew into adulthood, these systems began to fail as his liver, kidneys, and heart struggled to cope. For years, James has lived in crippling pain, with a high risk of any small infection being fatal. Throughout this, James has remained a beacon of light in our lives – funny, caring, positive, uncomplaining and an inspiration to all those who meet him.

His transplant gives James and his family new hope.

We are eternally grateful to the anonymous family who have made this transplant possible by allowing their loved one to donate their organs, and send them our love in their time of grief.

Every minute, we pray their loss wasn’t in vain.

On 4 July, James ate a tiny bite of birthday cake for the first time in his 25 years. A few days later, he decided that porridge tasted better than weetbix. However each of these small milestones hides the enormous risk and challenge that James still faces. While James has survived the surgery, his recovery remains critical and tenuous.

Each day brings a new challenge. Since the initial transplant, he has had emergency surgery, his kidneys have failed, he has blod clots on his lungs and there is the ever present risk of rejection. James fights every challenge with his characteristic strength, positivity, and determination, and is bolstered when he flags by the love and support of his mum, Kate and his siblings. He has now made the enormous leap out of intensive care, despite now needing frequent, although hopefully temporary dialysis. His initial recovery is expected to take at least six months and up to two years, both in hospital and as an outpatient in Melbourne, where he will require Kate’s full time care.

James moved to the Gold Coast as a teenager, and although they have really wanted to come home for years, the choice was not a simple one – despite the financial implications of being a New Zealander in Australia (Australia does not provide any assistance to James’ mum as his required carer), coming home would have meant giving up hope for the transplant that could save James’ life.

They made the only decision they could, and despite support from family and friends, this has been an incredibly difficult time. The initial costs of the transplant have been funded, but the ongoing costs of his required prescriptions and his recovery in Melbourne are not. Despite the success of the operation, it could all be in vain.

For all of James’ medical history, James’ family have never asked for outside help. This however is different. It is simply too big. They have already run out of funds, they don’t know what to do, they’re grateful for the transplant and scared that they might fail now because they can’t provide James with the care he needs to recover, and they’re desperate.

On behalf of James and his mum, we’re asking for your help, please, to make sure that this transplant wasn’t in vain, and to give James a chance at a life. We’ve explored every avenue, but without your support, we don’t know where to turn.

Your donation will give James the best chance of recovery. 100% of every donation will support not only James and Kate’s costs to stay in Melbourne, but vitally the costs of James’ prescriptions for anti-rejection drugs, medication to stop blod clots, anti-virals, and antibiotics and more that are absolutely essential to his recovery, but which are not covered by his medical funding.

Your support will help make sure James gets back on his feet, so he Kate can finally come home to New Zealand, where he wants to eat his first ever Christmas dinner on the beach, taste pineapple lumps, go back to volunteering with St John, go surfing with his twin, learn to cook, get his first job, play backyard cricket with his cousins, and live the life he has imagined.

We know James will make the most of the chance you give him with your support. He’s a fighter, and Kate will fight every step with him. We are so so grateful. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

From James’ family.