Trish Sulak & Christine Dixon Kidney Transplant

Hi! My name is Christine, and I am raising funds for my best friend Trish and I to comfortably recover and receive post-operative care for our living donor kidney transplant we have scheduled at U of M on Feb. 24th, 2023. We will be unable to work and laid up 1-2 months following surgery. We will both be unable to drive for an extended period of time and will require around the clock home care directly following surgery. We will also have travel expenses for post-operative care visits to Ann Arbor.

It is very hard for me to ask for monetary assistance, but I have set up this go fund me at the request of family and friends who are unable to attend our benefit dinner on Feb 8, 2023 from 4:30-7pm at St. Matthews Parish Hall in Boyne City.

Trish and I have been best friends our entire lives. We grew up right down the road from each other and met on the bus in kindergarten, and have been pretty much inseparable ever since. Trish was born with a rare agressive kidney disease that will require a new transplant every 20 years. She had her first when we were freshmen in high school. She has been in kidney failure and on hemodialysis for two years.

We went through testing last summer and I was a direct match to donate my kidney directly to her. What a blessing!

Trish has endured such hardship living with a chronic and terminal illness her entire life, but she never let it define or ruin her. In spite of her circumstances, she is still a fun, kind, loving, strong, beautiful, adventurous, hilarious, loyal and courageous woman who has continued to fight for her life with fearlessness, composure and grace.

Trish does not make her health struggles public. She is not seeking attention or sympathy, and doesn’t want to be treated differently by others for being chronically ill. She takes care of herself and looks very beautiful for a dying person. However, I think for these reasons, others have grossly misunderstood exactly how sick she has been literally her entire life, and even how sick she is right at this very moment.

I have seen Trish endure things from her disease and treatment throughout her life that I could never imagine going through personally, let alone more than once, or in some instances all of the time. Watching your best friend continually struggle, fight and suffer simply to live, and know there is nothing you can really do to help (other than laughter or moral support) is the absolute worst feeling. I can’t explain it. I wouldn’t wish this disease on my worst enemy.

Now there is finally something I can do to help her physical health. And to be a direct match, some would say fate. Some would say blessed. Some would say luck. Some would say destiny. I agree with all of them. Right after I told Trish we got scheduled for our living donor surgery, she saw a bald eagle on the hike she took after her hemodialysis treatment.

I am moved by the huge outpouring of support from our family, friends and members of our community. Thank you to everyone who is helping make this gift of life possible, we appreciate and love you all more than you know.