Help Charles get his kidney transplant.

Hello, my name is Charles Bordeaux; my friends call me Chuck. I was born on February 20th 1979 in Alabama and raised in California by my parents, Darlene Bordeaux and Phyllis Hickey. I graduated from Arroyo Grande HS in 1997 and attended UTI in Phoenix, AZ and graduated with an Associate’s degree in HVAC. I joined the pipe fitters union local 403 in 2001 and moved up in the ranks quickly, and in 2006 became a foreman and would be for the next few years. I was even put in the General Foreman position a few times.

In February 2010, I was severely ill with pneumonia and was diagnosed with a rare but aggressive form of kidney disease called IGA Nephropathy. IGA Nephropathy is hereditary and causes the immune system to overreact to upper respiratory infections such as pneumonia, which in turn causes kidney failure. Over the next year my doctors tried to save my kidney. In February 2011, I was hospitalized while working as a pipe fitter foreman at Watts Barr Nuclear Power Plant in TN – my kidney function was down to 3% and I started dialysis. Back in California I tried Peritoneal Dialysis so I could work during the day. While working in Nevada I once again became ill due to a massive infection in and around my dialysis site. I was put back on hemodialysis three days a week and have not been able to work since. I have been told that my only chance at a healthy life is to have a kidney transplant.