Katy needs life saving surgery urgently.
Help us support Katy and her family while she is unwell and off work to get to Australia for life saving surgery.
Hamilton, Waikato
Katy was diagnosed with abdominal vascular compressions (AVCS) in 2025 after months of difficulty eating, severe abdominal pain, nausea, bloating and unintentional extreme weight loss.
Now Katy can only tolerate small amounts of liquids or very soft foods supplemental IV fluids for hydration.
Katy can also only eat (drink) lying down as the compressions are positional and symptoms are worse when upright.
These AVCs are complicated by having Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare connective tissue disorder that causes laxity in the blood vessels and has contributed to the AVCs.
Fatigue and pain are constant companions, even with strong pain medication, and when not working, Katy spends a lot of time resting in bed or on the couch.
Working hours and what she can do at work has been reduced drastically.
Life has changed considerably, for example shopping trips and any distance walking now requires the use of a wheelchair or click and collect.
Katy was living a normal life up until September 2024 and became very unwell early 2025.
The life saving surgery Katy desperately needs to correct this AVCs is not available in NZ. She needs to travel to Australia to have this and is booked for early May 2026.
Also, adding to the family stress is Katy’s husband has terminal cancer. Up until recently he has been having treatment that has been keeping him fairly well.
However, recently he was very unwell in late Feb and spent 2 weeks in hospital (with time in HDU) with sepsis caused by pneumonia.
Sanj Nand's involvement (page creator)
I am a family friend of Katy and Maurice.
Use of funds
To help with family finances such as living costs and travel as Katy’s working hours have reduced significantly, also will need an extended amount of time off for recovery after surgery.
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Latest update
Maurice is now end of life care and my heart is broken 30 April 2026
Reposting as the bottom half didn’t save on the first one.
When Maurice was in hospital last week for IV antibiotics for the UTI that wasn’t clearing up with oral antibiotics, he picked up a hospital acquired infection called c-diff (a diarrhoea bug).
He doesn’t have the reserves left to fight it and went back into hospital on Sunday. We were told yesterday the next couple days were critical however they were still treating him with antibiotics as there was still a chance he could turn the corner.
However he deteriorated significantly overnight and his kidneys have started failing and his body started shutting down so we made the decision today that Maurice is ready for end of life care.
He has fought so hard. He was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer 7 years ago and terminal approx 3 years ago but has been relatively well until the 17th Feb when he got sepsis.
I’m not ready to lose the love of my life, my soul mate, the person who knows me better than any other person and loves me so much. We haven’t had enough time together but to be honest forever wouldn’t be enough time.
Maurice Lond, I love you baby.
Pic of our grandbabys just because taken today and because Maurice loves them so so much.
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