Help our friend Ben Salano pay his medical bills

Hi, my name is Jason and I’m helping our friend Benard Salano in Kenya raise funds to cover the cost of his lifesaving kidney anti-rejection medications.

For those of you who don’t know or remember Benard’s story, he received a life saving kidney transplant on the 8th of September 2015 in Mumbai, India. His sister Joy was his donor. Below are Ben’s own words about how he is doing at the moment.

‘I’m living on kidney anti rejection medication

1. Tacrolimus pangraf 3mg x 2 per day

2. ⁠mycophenolate mofetil 500mg per day

3. ⁠prednisone 5mg per day

4. ⁠pantoprazole 20 mg

5. ⁠calcium and magnesium supplements.

These meds are very expensive in Kenya , I spend $270 equivalent on meds a lone per month . Checkups and reviews are every 2 months to determine the level of meds in the blood . Blood tests cost up to $450 every checkup . I was ok with finances when I was working because I could afford to pay for it , now it’s not easy . I have aa week worth of meds left and my checkup is due . That’s why I’m stranded and don’t know what to do.’

My wife Naomi and I had Ben as our tour CEO when we traveled from VIC falls to Nairobi earlier this year on a G Adventures tour. We were immediately taken by Ben’s warmth, optimism, joy and gratitude. He has recently become unemployed as it’s the tourist slow season and he is really struggling to make ends meet. We would love to see our friend navigate this difficult time until he is able to get consistent work again. We will start the fundraising off with $300 AUD. We understand that times are tough at the moment for a lot of people with cost of living etc so we are just asking people to give what they can, if they can. Go Fund me doesn’t operate in Kenya so I will be transferring funds to Ben via bank transfer once we get enough funds.

Also if anyone wants to reach out to Ben and just check in on him and see how he is doing then please feel free, I’m sure he would love to hear from all of us. Gofundme won’t allow me to post his email or phone number here but if anyone needs his contact info then please reach out to me and I will get it to you.