Burgundy Jane Dias

My name is Burgundy, and my family and friends are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to help with the medical and recovery costs from my recent kidney transplant.

I have been on dialysis for 14 years. I first started the process to get on the transplant list back in 2010. I went to the classes, I did the work, and then in 2011 St. Francis – the hospital in Hawaiʻi that was doing kidney transplants at the time – shut down its transplant program. Overnight there was nowhere here I could receive a kidney, so I stayed on dialysis.

In 2013 and 2014, Queen’s began building a new transplant program, but my family was hit with major loss and crisis after crisis. We were grieving, we were trying to bury one loved one, and around the same time we were told that a child I was raising had terminal cancer. I put transplant on hold to take care of my family and to keep my people alive and comforted for as long as I could. We went through years of caretaking and heartbreak. I needed time to grieve and to lean on my faith.

At the end of 2019, I finally told myself: I’m ready. I felt spiritually, physically, mentally, and financially strong enough to get back on the list. One of my brothers, who was day trading and watching global markets in real time, told me in November that a serious virus was coming and it was going to shut the world down. I put the process on pause again. In March 2020, COVID hit and everything shut down, and I stayed on dialysis.

In 2023, I got on my knees and I said, “God, if it’s Your will, let this be the year.” I tried again. In 2024, after 14 years on dialysis, I was officially listed for transplant. That almost never happens after that long. I was humbled and grateful.

But even after that, it was still life or death. At one point, the access in my arm where I do dialysis (my fistula) bled out. I almost died. The surgeon told me we’d have to shut that arm down, build a whole new access in the other arm, and put another catheter in my neck just so I could stay alive on dialysis while the new access matured. My family was terrified. My little grandson begged me not to die. That moment was when “someday” became “I have to do this now.”

We usually never ask for help. Our home has always been the home that says yes — we’ve taken in kids, whole families, even people we just met when they had nowhere safe to go. But right now I have to humble myself and ask.

Your tax-deductible support through Help Hope Live will go toward verified medical and recovery needs from this transplant, including out-of-pocket care, medications, infection-control supplies, and safe transportation for follow-up, labs, and dialysis during this healing period.

Your help right now lets me focus on accepting this kidney and staying here longer for my ʻohana, instead of asking “how do I survive this and also pay for it at the same time?”

Saying a prayer on my behalf is absolutely welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for loving me through this.

— Burgundy

BURGUNDY has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility for contributors. Contributors can be confident that donations will be used to pay or reimburse approved medical and recovery expenses related to my transplant and care.

To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, please click “Give.”

For more information, you can contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.

Mahalo and God bless you.