Hey, I am Dan's brother and I have a Kidney disorder. I am seventeen years old, I got a kidney transplant when I was just two (actually was the youngest in the country to receive this type of transplant). About this time last year my donated kidney decided it had enough and I was forced to get on dialysis. I have been doing this ever since while on the waiting list for another transplant.
An organisation called Kidney Kids New Zealand supports kids and their families throughout the tough times and are always there for us. Something cool they do is an annual camp. I have been on a lot over my life and was really lucky enough again to join the 2008 teenagers camp recently. I thought i would let you know what i got up to on the camp!
I arrived in Auckland…. Late!! After missing my first flight up North, not only missing my flight but also I was missing my bags from the plane. So kidney camp didn’t start off with flying colours but it was sure to get better.
We all jumped into the buses and we were off to Rotarua, after a few stops to fill the hungry kidney tummies and pick up local kidney kids. When arriving in Rotarua we first had a team building exercise and a few rides on the big monster truck. In Rotarua we found our campsite and settled in, most kidney kids were surprised with the flash bedrooms, with brand new beds and new showers in them. Things were starting to look better already.
The next day (day 2) everyone had some free time in town to do/buy what ever they wanted. But the kids that were on dialysis went and did that in the r]Rotarua hospital. Even doing dialysis on kidney camp is still like a holiday, we got to experience different styles or ways of doing dialysis and meet other dialysis patients and nurses. After dialysis we were starving and felt that we needed to for fill some of our adrenaline needs, so of course camp had what we needed which was a good feed off KFC and a trip to the Agrodome were adrenaline needs sure were meet. We had a range of choices of what rides we wanted to do, I chose to do the swoop and the jet boat ride.
The swoop is like bungy jumping but you’re in a sleeping bag like thing, you get taken up really high and then drop/swoop past the ground and fly back into the air, like an extreme swing. The worst thing was you had to pull your own cord to drop/full. After all that we decided to chill and have a hit at mini golf. That night (day 3) was just as fun we headed up the mountain on the gondola and raced down on the luge, some kids took a few spills/crashes. After all the racing and another meal we were back on the bus and heading back to Auckland where we would catch our plane rides back home.
Overall the camp is a great weekend full of exciting activities that everyone enjoys. It’s amazing I get to do all this and forget about being sick and just live life. A big thank you, to all the kidney kids sponsors… especially Freeride NZ!! (Dan you the man), without them none of this would be possible.
Also this year at school Logan Park High School, my media studies class had to make films as part of completing the class. There were a range of films made, me and my friend Zac Wilkinson, decided that we would make an awesome film that meant something to us, rather than just a film that followed the guidelines of NCEA. The type of film we made was a challenging one by its self, a personalized documentary. And the topic was even harder. Its called 'Life's a Game' which shows the comparison between my life on dialysis as a teenager to being sitting benched during a game of basketball.
The film was entered into the Otago film competition where it won first place!! Yeah. I will put my video up on this blog shorty for you all to see.
Henry McMullan
We all jumped into the buses and we were off to Rotarua, after a few stops to fill the hungry kidney tummies and pick up local kidney kids. When arriving in Rotarua we first had a team building exercise and a few rides on the big monster truck. In Rotarua we found our campsite and settled in, most kidney kids were surprised with the flash bedrooms, with brand new beds and new showers in them. Things were starting to look better already.
The next day (day 2) everyone had some free time in town to do/buy what ever they wanted. But the kids that were on dialysis went and did that in the r]Rotarua hospital. Even doing dialysis on kidney camp is still like a holiday, we got to experience different styles or ways of doing dialysis and meet other dialysis patients and nurses. After dialysis we were starving and felt that we needed to for fill some of our adrenaline needs, so of course camp had what we needed which was a good feed off KFC and a trip to the Agrodome were adrenaline needs sure were meet. We had a range of choices of what rides we wanted to do, I chose to do the swoop and the jet boat ride.
The swoop is like bungy jumping but you’re in a sleeping bag like thing, you get taken up really high and then drop/swoop past the ground and fly back into the air, like an extreme swing. The worst thing was you had to pull your own cord to drop/full. After all that we decided to chill and have a hit at mini golf. That night (day 3) was just as fun we headed up the mountain on the gondola and raced down on the luge, some kids took a few spills/crashes. After all the racing and another meal we were back on the bus and heading back to Auckland where we would catch our plane rides back home.
Overall the camp is a great weekend full of exciting activities that everyone enjoys. It’s amazing I get to do all this and forget about being sick and just live life. A big thank you, to all the kidney kids sponsors… especially Freeride NZ!! (Dan you the man), without them none of this would be possible.
Also this year at school Logan Park High School, my media studies class had to make films as part of completing the class. There were a range of films made, me and my friend Zac Wilkinson, decided that we would make an awesome film that meant something to us, rather than just a film that followed the guidelines of NCEA. The type of film we made was a challenging one by its self, a personalized documentary. And the topic was even harder. Its called 'Life's a Game' which shows the comparison between my life on dialysis as a teenager to being sitting benched during a game of basketball.
The film was entered into the Otago film competition where it won first place!! Yeah. I will put my video up on this blog shorty for you all to see.
Henry McMullan
No comments:
Post a Comment