Australian country music singer Seleen McAlister and her husband Jason have been partners in crime ever since they met as teenagers. or signup to continue reading He's "never been a romantic", McAlister says, but they have been devoted to each other, despite being separated at times by his career in the army and hers on the road as a singer. Jason has been her rock through health challenges, fertility struggles and the complicated pregnancies of her three children, and there to celebrate her triumphs including twice being nominated for Golden Guitar awards.
So it's little surprise that he has also been by McAlister's side these past few years as her kidneys have reached end-stage failure - the latest in a string of complications caused by her type 1 diabetes. "Pretty much every complication you can get from diabetes, I'm a card-carrying member of that club," the 49-year-old said. "He has been by my side, literally the whole time.
.. I'm in the chair, he's in the other chair.
We're in this as a team." McAlister is on the waiting list for a kidney transplant but is philosophical about her situation, aware so many other families are facing the same battles. But her usually quiet husband, who "doesn't speak up very much", is fighting hard on her behalf.
"I remember when we were in the room with the last vascular surgeon who was going to make the decision about whether I was going to be able to get a transplant," she said. "He said to the surgeon: 'You don't know her, but she's our.