Jonos Fight for a kidney donation

Jono is 32 years old and his life revolves around medication, sleep, dialysis, pain relief, hospitalisations and operations, yet somehow he still manages to get up every day and make it into work or crack a joke with everyone! End stage renal failure literally drains him from all life but yet he just keeps trying and trying and trying.

This is the second time Jono has been in kidney failure after receiving a transplant from his mum when he was younger. However, now it is time for him to require another kidney to live a fulfilled life free from kidney failure. Having Nephrotic syndrome - same as Jonah Lomu - Jono was put on peritoneal dialysis nearly 5 years ago, which stopped working and caused toxins and potassium levels to build up to an extent that he is lucky to not have suffered cardiac arrest or septicaemia.

Peritoneal dialysis however has given Jono scarring and tissue build up in his bowels and digestive system, making his body unable to absorb nutrition and he is now on prednisone and chemotherapy drugs to try and break down the scarring. This is extremely painful and if you have heard Jonos stomach make its noises you will understand how debilitating, painful and bloated he becomes from this.

Now he is on Hemodialysis and is going for another surgery on May 13th. This surgery will remove his hickman chest line and fuse together arteries and veins in his arm to try and allow for better dialysis to occur. Blood clots happen often through the chest line and seeing nurses pull one out just before it starts working its way towards his heart is terrifying.

Surgery with Jono is never straight forward either, he is susceptible to infections, picking up bugs from within hospital due to a highly compromised immune system and due to his body not flushing out fluid, pneumonia is also a regular occurrence.

We are aiming to raise funds to allow Jono to take necessary time off work to heal without the financial burden of the mortgage and bills and to raise awareness on how awful kidney disease truly is. Unfortunately its becoming more rampant in New Zealand, yet funding, resources and donors seem to be diminishing.

Lets try and get him a kidney and the finances so he can take time to rest from surgery. If there is one thing i would love to achieve for him it is this as if anyone deserves time heal he definitely does.