Kidney Kid to Europe to Compete in Rhythmic World Cups and World Champs 2018

Hi My name is Katherine, I'm 24 years old and a kidney patient on daily peritoneal dialysis. I'm a member of the New Zealand Senior Rhythmic Gymnastics Group who last week was selected to take part in a 5 week trip to Europe, to two World Cups in Minsk, Balarus and Kazan, Russia in August and a World Championships and training camp in Sofia, Bulgaria. These competitions are the stepping stones in order for us to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and we need your help to get us there. Never before has a group been selected to compete in these world cups.

We train 6 days a week 4 hours a day. We work very hard and always try to find ways to improve our routines. We recently travelled to Melbourne, Australia to compete in the Australian Nationals and came 4th overall.

My kidney failure was caused by a genetic mutation back in 2008, I had a transplant in 2008 which lasted 7 years. It failed and was removed in 2015 and I have been back on dialysis since then. I've had several people tested for another transplant but sadly no-one has matched.

I've been keeping myself healthy maintaining my dialysis, eating the correct food and making sure I control my fluid intake. I work extra hard to maintain my health and fitness. I've had some hurdles along the way including getting a small hernia. I have been doing gym since I was 5 years old, its my passion and its helped me to led as normal life as possible. I've always come back fighting, if you want something really bad you do everything to achieve it.

Money raised would help me to get my dialysis boxes to these countries. Some will need to be taken with me and others will need to be shipped there. Ideally I need to travel business class to Minsk, for the long 17 hour flight to be able to raise my feet so I don't get swollen legs and arrive feeling well and ready to train and compete. It will also allow my to take extra baggage and have the space and facilities to do a bag on the plane.

Thank you for your donations! It is greatly appreciated!