Dialysis nurse Andrea Couch is travelling with Kidney Health Australia’s Big Red Kidney Bus, which is providing mobile dialysis services at NRMA Echuca Holiday Park until March 28, allowing kidney failure patients to travel and holiday while receiving treatment.
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
Kidney Health Australia’s Big Red Kidney Bus has arrived at NRMA Echuca Holiday Park, bringing lifesaving dialysis services to tourists until March 28.
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The mobile dialysis unit allows people with kidney failure to travel and holiday while maintaining their essential treatment routine.
Melbourne resident Lynette Florance is among the patients utilising the service during her week-long stay.
“We have family in Cohuna and in Moama, so we will catch up with them and then do a bit of sightseeing around,” she said.
“We have been to Echuca a few times. We like to wander around a bit, look at the port and go for a stroll.”
Mrs Florance, who requires dialysis three afternoons a week, has embraced the freedom the bus provides.
“With the bus, this year we have been to Warrnambool in February and we are going to Mildura in June and Lakes Entrance in September,” she said.
“Having the kidney bus has been excellent because we got stuck and couldn’t do anything, and it has opened up the things we can do.”
The diagnosis came as a shock to Mrs Florance.
“It was a big shock, because you don’t realise anything is wrong,” she said.
“And then the next thing, you realise you are nearly ready for dialysis and have to have dialysis.
“But it is keeping me alive and I get to see some of the country.”
Kidney Health Australia general manager of community Maria O’Sullivan explained the bus’ vital role.
“Our big red kidney bus is a mobile dialysis unit on wheels,” she said.
“It travels up and down the state of Victoria, providing dialysis to people who are on haemodialysis in their own treating units.
“It gives them a chance to actually travel to somewhere else, to go on holidays or to visit friends.”
The service addresses significant restrictions faced by dialysis patients.
“With haemodialysis, they need to have treatment three times a week in their unit for about five hours a day,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
“So it really restricts their ability to travel anywhere very far for very long.”
The bus will be in Echuca until March 28, then it goes to Phillip Island from April 22 to May 19, followed by time based in Mildura.
The Big Red Kidney Bus is stationed at NRMA Caravan Park in Echuca, helping Bill Duggan receive lifesaving dialysis with dialysis nurse Andrea Couch. Photo: Jordan Townrow.
Ms O’Sullivan is encouraging anyone local to the area who needs dialysis to go and visit the bus.
“There is a proportion of people in the Nichols electorate with kidney disease and it is a widely undiagnosed disease,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
“You can lose 90 per cent of your kidney function before symptoms are apparent.
“That is why we are getting the message out, to be aware of the risk factors.”
Ms O’Sullivan said the two key risk factors were diabetes and high blood pressure, with First Nations people being at higher risk of the disease.
Other factors include being overweight, being a current or past smoker or vaper, if you have had a stroke, heart attack or heart failure or have a family history of kidney disease.
Anyone who thinks they are at risk of kidney disease need to speak to a GP about taking a kidney health check.
The bus features three comfortable dialysis chairs with individual entertainment systems and wheelchair access, operating morning and afternoon sessions Monday to Saturday.
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