For six hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Min Gaulai is tied to a chair which keeps him alive.
Mr Gaulai is retired and well respected in the Mount Isa community in regional north-west Queensland where he has lived for more than 40 years.
He and his wife, Dolly Hankin — who is known locally as Aunty Dolly — were both born on Thursday Island and Mr Gaulai's working career was spent in workshops and on the railroads.
Now, every week, Mr Gaulai and Aunty Dolly wait for a phone call to tell them whether or not they have to drive to Cairns — a 13-hour drive, 1,100 kilometres away from their home — to receive his treatment because there are not enough dialysis chairs in Mount Isa.
Each time they make the return journey, it adds up to 26 hours on the road for a total of 2,200 kilometres.
Mr Gaulai fell sick in 2019. He has several chronic health conditions and is experiencing critical renal failure.
There's at least 10 other patients on the list for a guaranteed chair in Mount Isa before him.
Battling to go home
Aunty Dolly drives her husband to Cairns for treatment but he stays on with family and she has to head home for work.
She runs the Arthur Peterson Diversionary Centre, which provides overnight accommodation to those who are homeless or affected by chronic substance abuse.
"It's very, very hard in a way … we're not together. He's in Cairns, I'm here in Mount Isa," Aunty Dolly said.
"We're sort of in the background [for healthcare] … Mount Isa's a big country town, we shouldn't be the last prioritised."
Both Mr Gaulai and Aunty Dolly are Torres Strait Islanders.
However, Aunty Dolly said, the local Aboriginal population had "adopted" them both.
"The Aboriginal people of this community have accepted us, so to speak. They've sort of adopted us. So, this is home," she said.
Mr Gaulai said he felt like he was always battling to go home.
"It feels very hard, you know what I mean … being away from family, [from] home."
Population demand skewed
Member for Traeger Robbie Katter said with not enough dialysis chairs in Mount Isa, locals like Mr Gaulai were left with no choice but to leave the area for good.
He said when patients reluctantly moved to Townsville or Cairns for treatment, it impacted local demand numbers because the patient would no longer count in Mount Isa's waiting numbers.
"Those families that it affects, it disrupts their entire worlds and most of these people who we're talking about are underprivileged," Mr Katter said.
"It's really heart-wrenching stuff and it just makes me angry every time I hear the government announce something new, some piece of social infrastructure that people enjoy in the cities when you have stories like that out here."
Mr Katter said the Mount Isa Chronic Kidney Care Team was treating 67 local dialysis patients, including 20 who had permanently been displaced.
On top of that, they care for about 280 other people with renal disease who may need dialysis in the future.
Yet there are only 10 chairs.
