Maddie’s big mufti day
Efforts to help fund a life-saving operation for a Canterbury girl are picking up pace.
Mufti Day for Maddie is being held across the country tomorrow to help Maddie Collins get a kidney transplant in the United States.
The 12-year-old was diagnosed with a kidney disease in 2009. She lost one kidney and had the second one replaced with her father’s kidney in a transplant in 2012. But that transplant was eventually rejected by Maddie’s body.
Mufti Day for Maddie organiser Pete Burdon said the fundraising events tomorrow would be an easy way for schools and businesses to do something to save Maddie’s life.
Christchurch-based Burdon said that while there was a lot of interest in the national mufti day, it was hard to gauge how many businesses and schools planned to take part.
‘‘We need as much support as we can get, whether that be having a mufti day or just donating to the bank account on the webpage.’’
He encouraged groups to register their event on the website: www.mediatrainingnz.co.nz/ maddie. ‘‘If you can’t do a mufti day, please still donate. All money raised goes directly to the Collins family.’’
Maddie’s parents want to raise $350,000 to find their daughter a kidney in the US to save her life after exhausting their options for a transplant in New Zealand.
She has only a 2 per cent chance of matching anyone in New Zealand so the most likely and best option for her is to have the transplant there.
Maddie is being kept alive by dialysis. Doctors have told the family she had been accepted on to the waiting list for a kidney donation, but she would not be considered for a live donor transplant.
A pre-transplant treatment required for Maddie means she could not use a deceased donor kidney. Maddie is now on dialysis for 10 to 11 hours at night, with an hour session in the afternoon.
The family has already started fundraising through the Givealittle website, with more than $41,000 already pledged.
Sixteen-year-old Charli Francis organised the recent Maddie Collins Ball to help raise money for the transplant.
The ball, held in Darfield last weekend, raised $26,218 – a figure which thrilled both Charli and the Collins family.
Both girls go to St Margaret’s College in Christchurch, and although four years older than Maddie, Charli has been following her story and felt she had to help.
Charli said she hoped others would hear Maddie’s story and help out too.
‘‘Every bit counts.’’