2010 Freedom Cruise Overview

Cruise Day 1, Cruise Day 2,  Cruise Day 3, Cruise Day 4, Cruise Day 5, Cruise Day 6, Cruise Day 7

Meet the Cruisers

In early 2009, a group of NxStage patients and partners began planning what became known as the 2010 Freedom Cruise. The idea was to get a group of home dialyzors and their partners together to vacation with one another and enjoy the freedom that daily home hemodialysis with NxStage allows. The "2010 Freedom Cruise: We’re Taking Home Dialysis to Sea" is now a reality and a group of ten patients - along with their care partners - are taking their own portable NxStage System One™ cyclers on a week-long conventional (non-dialysis) cruise.

"In the past, being a dialysis patient meant scheduling your life around your in-center treatment schedule," said NxStage home hemodialysis patient and cruise organizer Rich Berkowitz. "If we wanted to travel, we were limited to destinations where space at local dialysis centers was available, and arrangements had to be made weeks or months in advance. Cruises like this were only possible with a dialysis medical team onboard. We are excited to show other dialysis patients that we, too, can enjoy the freedom and flexibility that others have by traveling with our System Ones. Dialysis doesn’t have to be the end of "normal" living, but rather a new beginning."

The Freedom Cruise group - 28 in total - includes not only NxStage patients and partners, but also a former patient who is now transplanted and others connected to kidney disease. The cruise departs from Miami, Fla., on January 3, 2010 and returns on January 10, 2010. Along the way, the Freedom Cruisers will enjoy Grand Cayman, Isla Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel.

"We were excited to learn that this group of NxStage patients and caregivers are celebrating the flexibility of home hemodialysis by organizing this cruise, and we wish them a wonderful trip," said Jeffrey H. Burbank, chief executive officer of NxStage Medical. "This cruise underscores our mission to help dialysis patients lead full and vibrant lives, and we hope that this is one of many trips of this kind that patients who choose home hemodialysis with the System One can continue to enjoy in the future."

NxStage will be onboard to capture the patients’ stories and photos that depict the quality of life and health benefits of daily home - or at sea - hemodialysis.