On 4 December we brought 22 people affected by kidney disease to Parliament for our Organ Donation Parliamentary Reception, held jointly with NHS Blood and Transplant and hosted by Florence Eshalomi MP, who spoke about her mum’s 11 years on dialysis.
Over 60 MPs and peers attended to hear first hand from people affected by kidney disease about the impact of the disease, as well as the transformation a kidney transplant can bring and how challenging the wait for a suitable organ can be.
The Health Minister Baroness Merron attended and encouraged people to make their organ donation wishes known, add their name to the organ donation register and talk to their family about their decision.
We at Kidney Care UK also spoke about the need for earlier identification of kidney disease so that fewer people would face kidney failure in the future.
With the transplant waiting list at a ten-year high, it is vital that the increasing demand for transplants is carefully considered by the NHS and government.
We would like to thank everyone who supported the event, by writing to their MP to urge them to attend or making the trip to Parliament. Kidney Care UK will be contacting each of the parliamentarians who attended to thank them and ask for their ongoing support in working for better care and support for everyone with kidney disease.
Jess Harris, from London, told the audience about having diabetes at the age of 11 and how her subsequent kidney failure had been so difficult. She explained the difference that receiving ‘Kev the kidney’ and ‘Pat the pancreas’ had made, enabling her to find a life partner and have a baby. Jess said:
"My organs and I have just celebrated our 6th birthday. They are the reason I am here. They are the reason I am living my best life. They are the reason I get to be a mummy, which I never thought was possible. Without my organs I would not be able to live and love this life I’ve worked so hard to create. But it’s more about my donor and his selfless decision to save a stranger. As I’ll never get to thank my donor, I feel the only way I can really give back is by living. I live my best life, not just for me but for him.
"No one wants to think about death or talk about it round a dinner table, but until you’re personally affected by it you don’t fully understand or appreciate how vital these conversations are. After all, I am only here today because my donor had these very brave discussions."
The event at Westminster also allowed us to pause and reflect on the fact that over 100,000 transplants have taken place since the NHS Organ Donor Register was created 30 years ago.
Elizabeth Ward, the founder of the charity (formerly known as the British Kidney Patient Association), first created the kidney donor card in 1971. This was the precursor to the organ donor card and organ donor register which was established 23 years later in 1994, helped by Christine Cox’s family who campaigned for the register after her brother died of cancer in 1989.
