Mother needs funds for kidney transplant

By SHIRLYN BELDEN
A FAMILY is appealing for financial help from the public to keep their mother alive.
Moale Gapi, a mother of two from Kalo village in Rigo, Central, is living with polycystic kidney disease and requires an urgent kidney transplant overseas.
She was diagnosed at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) in 1998 and has lived with disease for more than 10 years.
The kidney disease, known as PKD, causes numerous water-filled cysts or growths to develop on the surface of the kidneys.
The cysts grow and multiply at the same time, causing damage to the normal kidney processes and leads to kidney failure.  
Gapi is undergoing treatment at PMGH and has been advised by her doctors to consider a kidney transplant.
The transplant overseas will cost Gapi and her family K100,000.
She was advised to get a tissue type and cross matching test from potential donors before she could undergo the transplant operation.
Unfortunately, this much-needed test cannot be done in PNG.
Gapi and her family desperately need help to get the test and transplant done.
The family has started fundraising and an account has been opened for donations for the cause.
A corporate dinner is planned for Feb 11 at the Holiday Inn in Port Moresby.
Tickets will be on sale for K350 per person and a table for K3,500.
The tickets can be bought from Yamo Gapi on 7225 4564, Alice Kulu on 7165 7789 or Moale Gapi 7369 6292.
Those willing to help can donate cash to the account: Moale Gapi (medical fund) account number: 14054892 at ANZ Bank, Port Moresby branch.