Adelia Ladson
MOULTRIE — Nicholas DuBose, 22, would just like to pick up his life where it left off before his kidneys stopped working — attending college to get his bachelor’s degree.
“I have my associate’s in graphic design,” said the soft spoken young man, smiling.
He received the degree from High-Tech Institute in Marietta, Ga. but cannot continue his education now because of the expense of his dialysis treatment and the time involved with the treatment itself.
DuBose said he was interested in web design and would eventually be interested in pursuing a job in that field, but his kidney failure has held him back. He said he has been interested in drawing since he was 10 years old.
“I always loved cartoons,” he said smiling.
He said he might even be interested in teaching art at the elementary school level. His older brother is a music teacher in Greenville, Ga.
DuBose has had lupus since he was 15 and his kidneys stopped working about two years ago. He also has high blood pressure as an added complication. He has dialysis six days a week for two hours a day and will have been on it for two years in July, he said. He is able to do the dialysis at his home in Coolidge with the help of his mother and fiancée using a portable machine. He said he has a lot of support from the both of them.
“Many people don’t have this little machine. Only a couple of people in Thomas County have it,” he said.
DuBose said he likes being able to do the dialysis at home better because he has more control over it and he doesn’t have to wait.
“If I don’t do it, I feel miserable,” he said.
DuBose is employed full-time as a connection center associate at Wal-Mart and has been there for about three years. Mitch Hegwood, who said he had worked with him for a long time, said he would see DuBose come in “so tired” after the dialysis treatment.
“Every time I looked at him, it just broke my heart,” he said.
He said DuBose even came into work one day after having to make a trip to the emergency due to complications from medication.
“We’re a family here. It’s more that ... than it is a business,” said Hegwood.
He and other Wal-Mart associates have formed a committee to help DuBose raise $10,000 for a kidney transplant. He is in the process of getting placed on the waiting list.
DuBose said he was told he would need the $10,000 for medication; the procedure would be done at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. However, he said, the wait for the kidney could be a couple of months or a couple of years.
“Every time I look in his eyes, I see the sadness,” Hegwood said. “That’s what this is all about. To make the sadness go away. I want this young man to get a kidney.”
Holly Redding, one of the committee members, said there were several people involved, all Wal-Mart employees, and they have already done a couple of fundraisers.
“We have several ideas going around,” she said.
On Saturday, they held a carwash in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, next to the garden center, and plan to have another one on Saturday, July 19, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
They have also set up an account in DuBoses’s name at the SunTrust branch inside the store, where donations can be made.
“I love it. I just don’t know how to thank them,” DuBose said, almost speechless.
