11/03/2026
For Katrina Linthwaite, kidney disease has shaped much of her adult life.
Now a renal nurse at Mackay Base Hospital, Katrina once stood on the other side of the hospital bed, supporting her husband Gavin through kidney failure, dialysis and two life-saving transplants over more than two decades.
Today on World Kidney Day, Katrina reflects on a journey that has taken her from cane farmer’s wife and carer to qualified nurse helping others facing the same diagnosis.
Life for the Koumala couple changed dramatically in 2000 when Gavin, then 28, was kicked in the back by a cow while working on the farm. The injury led doctors to discover something far more serious, an autoimmune disease called IgA nephropathy that had already reduced his kidney function to about 20 per cent.
The couple had just welcomed their first child when the diagnosis came.
“It was a real struggle for him,” Katrina said. “He didn’t take the diagnosis well at all. He became quite depressed.
“Doctors told him his kidneys were failing and dialysis would soon be necessary. Just six months later he began haemodialysis at Mackay Base Hospital twice a week, travelling 45 minutes each way from the farm for five-hour treatments.”
With a young family and a busy farm to manage, the routine was exhausting. Katrina, who was 22 and a new mum, remembers those early years as overwhelming.
“It was really hard because he was so unwell afterwards,” she said. “For a farmer to travel that far and then be wiped out for the rest of the day was tough.”
Determined to improve their quality of life, Katrina pushed for home dialysis. The couple undertook training in Townsville and installed an ultra-water filtration system to manage the property’s hard water before set up of the dialysis machine in their home.
For Gavin, who had a severe needle phobia, learning to cannulate himself was daunting. But the flexibility of dialysing at home allowed him to keep working on the farm before dialysing in the afternoon.
After two years of home dialysis, they finally received the call they had been hoping for; a kidney transplant was available. It was the third call they had received. Twice before, illness meant Gavin could not go ahead with surgery.
In November 2003, at the age of 30, he underwent a kidney transplant at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital. By then the couple had two young children, including a six-month-old daughter. Katrina spent eight weeks in Brisbane with the baby, supporting him through the operation and recovery while family cared for their son back home.
“It was frightening when the dialysis machine was taken away after the transplant,” she said.
“We were thinking, ‘What if we need it?’ But it also meant everything had gone well.”
Kidney transplants are not cures, Katrina said. Donated kidneys generally last around 15 years and recipients must take anti-rejection medication for life.
For Gavin, that prediction proved accurate. Fifteen years after the transplant he began to feel the familiar signs of kidney failure again – extreme fatigue, poor appetite and declining health.
Read more of Katrina's story here: https://www.mackay.health.qld.gov.au/about-us/news/husbands-20-year-journey-the-inspiration-for-renal-career
