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A $60,000 fundraising effort is underway for Alexis Flynn of Delta Junction, who is receiving a kidney from her father.

In her short life, Alexis Flynn has endured 15 surgeries, her mother Barbara said, and she’s only counting the ones that needed anesthesia. And now the 2-year-old is on the cusp of her biggest surgery yet, a kidney transplant.

Alexis was diagnosed with end stage renal disease and doctors recommended a kidney transplant. Her father matched five out the six markers for a successful donor kidney and will be providing her with one at the Children’s Hospital in Seattle. Although Alexis has cleared the hurdle of finding a donor, it doesn’t mean her ordeal is over.

Barbara said Alexis will need a lifetime of drugs to boost her immune system, anti-rejection medication to keep the kidney working and blood tests to make sure she stays healthy. Barbara also said one of the biggest fears with transplants is that rejection will happen and all efforts will be lost.

“Rejection isn’t that bad because they can treat it,” Barbara said.

Along with the Children’s Organ Transplant Association, volunteers in Delta Junction and Fort Greely are trying to raise $60,000 for Alexis. Campaign coordinator Rose Edgren said the amount was determined by COTA when the organization looked at Alexis’s possible needs over her lifetime.

“Everything that goes into that fund goes to Alexis,” Edgren said.

Barbara considers Alexis, born in 2005, to be her miracle child. When Babara was five months pregnant, her Fairbanks doctor sent her to a specialist in Anchorage where she was told the fetus wouldn’t survive another two weeks. But against odds, Alexis was born and survived but not without medical problems. She was born with 14 physical cognitive abnormalities such as her esophagus not attached to her stomach, and only one small, malfunctioning kidney. After two months in the neonatal intensive care unit, doctors asked the Flynns a life-changing question: Could they take care of Alexis? If they couldn’t care for Alexis, she would have to be institutionalized.

“I said, ‘I’m going to do whatever it takes,’” Barbara said.

Currently, the Flynns spend 13 hours a day feeding Alexis, even feeding her while she sleeps. She also has to wear an oxygen mask while sleeping. Alexis doesn’t walk yet and has just gained her 24th pound, just making it past the transplant minimum weight of 22 pounds. But Barbara said even with all of her daughter’s medical problems, Barbara is amazed at her daughter’s cheery disposition.

“I can’t believe how good she is,” Barbara said.

Although the money will support Alexis for the rest of her life, some present expenses the money will help with are the three months that the Flynn family needs to spend in Seattle after the transplant, plane tickets for travel between Seattle and Delta Junction, a baby sitter for their other child and everyday expenses.

“We have regular jobs, but we’re not rich,” Babara said. “We’re basically living paycheck to paycheck.”

Edgren said she and volunteers will plan fundraisers around Delta Junction and Fort Greely and have set up a Web site to collect money for Alexis with the help of COTA, a nonprofit organization that helps with fundraising for children or young people who need transplants. To donate or find fundraising events, visit www.cotaforalexisf.com or call Edgren at 907-895-4043.