Footy star Richelle Cranston has revealed the awful comments and questions she receives online as she undergoes dialysis while hoping for a transplant that will end her long and draining battle with deadly kidney disease.
The 35-year-old was forced to retire in 2023 after playing 60 AFLW matches for Melbourne, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs, and she gave her fans a sad parting message after her last game.
‘My health has sort of deteriorated. It’s been a really hard year – kidney disease,’ she said when the Dogs were knocked out of the finals that November.
‘I’ll probably start dialysis in January [2024] so there was really no option for me [to keep playing].
‘I’ll focus on my health – if anyone’s got a kidney, hit me up!’
Cranston is still on dialysis, and still waiting for the news that a donor has been found.
Richelle Cranston is pictured playing for the Western Bulldogs in 2022, a year before deadly kidney disease forced her into retirement
The 35-year-old now has a catheter implanted into her abdomen (pictured) so she can hook herself up to a dialysis machine for eight hours every day
As if life wasn’t tough enough for Cranston, she also has to deal with ignorant and awful comments like this one from trolls on social media
Her kidneys only had 12 per cent of normal function when she retired from footy and now she has to restrict herself to taking in no more than 1.5 litres of fluid a day, as well as spending eight hours hooked up to a dialysis machine by a catheter in her abdomen.
And on top of all that, she is dealing with shocking and ignorant comments about her condition on social media.
In one video she posted to Instagram, she reacts to a commenter who asked, ‘If you killed it [your kidney] why should they give you another one?’
‘So I didn’t kill my kidney, I have a chronic illness, through no fault of my own,’ she explained.
‘Some people just get sick, and comments like this just prove we need more awareness.’
In another clip, Cranston fires back at comments including, ‘I’m not being rude here, but you’ve only got five years on dialysis avenue’, ‘All reversible, get into herbs and prayer’, ‘Try a grape diet, only grapes for three solid weeks’, and ‘It can be reversed don’t get caught in that specialist syndrome’.
She sums up her reaction to those with the simple reply, ‘Advice about as useful as my kidneys.’
When another commenter told her, ‘You don’t look sick,’ the former Bulldogs star posted a video of her with her dialysis machine and the caption, ‘Chronic illness isn’t visible but it’s always there.’
Other commenters have downplayed what Cranston is going through (pictured) or suggested bizarre and ineffective ‘cures’ like only eating grapes for three weeks
The former Dogs, Cats and Demons star has somehow managed to keep working out in the gym (pictured) – but even that has been used against her online
Cranston has been able to stay in great shape with regular gym workouts despite her health battle, but trolls have even found a way to use that to insult her, with one writing, ‘You’re on anavar [the steroid Anavir] or something stop effing lying omg.’
‘So a few people think I’m on steroids, which is kind of a compliment, so thanks,’ Cranston replied.
‘I’m in kidney failure and literally need a machine to keep me alive, so not sure why I’d take steroids.
‘I played professional sport for eight years, where I got tested for performance-enhancing drugs.
‘And how is this the body of someone on steroids?’ she concludes, pointing out the catheter emerging from her midriff.
In another post, she reveals messages from people asking ‘Are you a tran [trans]???’ and ‘What is your gender?’ before replying, ‘Strong women really do bring out the insecurity in some people.’
There are roughly 1400 Australians waiting for a kidney transplant, with a median wait time of 2.2 years, according to Kidney Health Australia.
However, Cranston could be on the list for far longer due to a quirk in her physical make-up.
‘I try not to think about the transplant too much … since my blood type is really rare,’ she told News Corp.
‘It would be great if I got a transplant but I don’t want to get my hopes up.’
Thankfully, the trolls with their shocking comments are only a very small portion of the followers she’s attracted since starting to document her health battle online.
Cranston shoots down comments like this with humour – and also tries to educate Aussies about the effects of kidney disease
She also has to deal with breathtaking comments about her gender
‘Ninety five per cent of the feedback I get is really positive,’ she said.
‘It’s a lot of people either with families who have got someone going through it, or just found out they have it and [are] looking for insight.
‘There are definitely days when I think “this sucks”, but I also don’t want it to ruin my life.
‘There are people suffering way more than I am.’
Cranston thought the disease ‘couldn’t be that bad’ when she was first diagnosed, because she ‘felt great at the time’.
But then she went blind in one eye at footy training as the condition increased her blood pressure so much it burst blood vessels behind her eye.
‘My kidneys were at 22 per cent [of normal function] and it was stage four of kidney disease, but I still managed to play four or five years of footy after that point,’ she explained.
