The Purple Truck was featured on ABC Television’s Australian Story on Monday 18 February 2019, alongside legendary Australian actor Jack Thompson.
The program tells the story of Jack coming to terms with his diagnosis of kidney disease in early 2018. It meant he would now require regular dialysis treatment three times each week. As his doctor said to his wife, “Mrs Thompson, you can have a dialysed Jack or a dead Jack”.
It threw Jack’s plans to travel to Kakadu to make a new film called High Ground into disarray. Jack asked us here at Purple House if we could help and our bosses said yes! So we sent the Purple Truck to Kakadu so that Jack could make his film and some other locals could head home for a bit too.
About the Purple Truck
The Purple Truck is a self-contained dialysis unit on wheels. It gives patients with end-stage renal failure the chance to return home to some of the most remote parts of Australia for family, cultural or sorry business.
Purple House is the only provider of dialysis to patients in very remote areas through our 14 remote dialysis clinics across the NT and WA. Remote Indigenous people in Central Australia are up to 30 times more likely to suffer from kidney disease than other Australians. Unable to access dialysis in their communities, many are forced to leave their homes and come to Alice Springs indefinitely, leaving communities without cultural leadership.
With two dialysis chairs, the Purple Truck travels to remote communities, letting patients visit home confident they’ll survive the trip. Featuring the artwork of Papunya Tula artists and dialysis patients, it’s a beautiful thing.
Read more
Back on Track, Australian Story
Jack Thompson on life and work, Late Night Live, ABC Radio
Legend of Australian film struggles with chronic disease, Sunrise
‘Happy to be alive’: Jack Thompson reveals kidney disease during Garma festival, The Guardian