Watch: 15 kidney patients get rare chance to travel

A middle-aged woman is on holiday with her husband and three children in France, a fairly normal event for the middle of the summer but renal nurse Josette Parnis knows just how special it really is. The woman is a dialysis patient and she can only travel if she can find somewhere in the host country where she can allow machines to do what her own kidneys cannot. The annual trip to Lourdes organised by the Lourdes Volunteers Association is a case in point because patients can use the renal unit there. The logistics of travelling are daunting for any sick person but for those who need dialysis three times a week merely to stay alive the challenges have put most of them off. So, persuading this woman to spend some quality time with her family was quite a feat, enough of an achievement to make Ms Parnis's eyes well up with tears. The stories tumbled out as she spoke to the Times of Malta at Mater Dei Hospital, where she had gone on her day off to ensure that the patients were all having dialysis before their trip that night. She spoke emotionally of another patient for whom the trip was touch and go until just a day before, the seven of 15 who went this year and used wheelchairs,...