So often people don’t realise the bloody amazing job our kidneys do, and because symptoms of a reduction in kidney function can be confused or misinterpreted as being linked to something else, many people are not aware that you can lose up to 90% of your kidney function without realising.
One million people in the UK have kidney disease right now and are not aware of it. By encouraging people to complete a quick and easy online risk checker – based on the International Society of Nephrology quiz and aligned to NHS NICE guidelines – we are helping more people realise they might be at risk, and get diagnosed sooner so that they can take control of their kidney health.
A city's worth of kidney health checks
Since the campaign launched in October 2024, around 320,000 people have completed the Checker (that's a little more than the population of Leicester or Nottingham!) and those numbers are growing every day.
We’ve presented the campaign to various NHS networks, at a behavioural science conference, at UK Kidney Week in Bournemouth and at the European Renal Society congress in Vienna.
There is huge interest in sharing the campaign far and wide and sharing posters and resources in primary care settings, public spaces and public health clinics. We knew the campaign was bold and striking and we’re pleased that there has been so much support for it, particularly across the NHS, as well as from the general public.
Around 1 in 2 identified as at risk of kidney disease
Of the people who have completed the Checker, around 50% have been identified as being at increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease. The primary risk factor question that has consistently received the most ‘yes’ responses is related to having high blood pressure; the secondary risk factor question receiving the most ‘yes’ responses relates to frequent and regular use of NSAID medication.
We’ve spoken to some of those who were identified as being at increased risk and have heard from patients who have completed the Checker, spoken to their GP, had their kidney function checked and have left with a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease. In some cases this was a diagnosis of CKD stage 4 or CKD stage 5.
Data shows that people don’t always attend their annual health checks, and those most at risk of developing kidney disease – people with diabetes and heart disease – are not invited to these, the assumption being that any impact on kidney function will be picked up by the monitoring of their other condition. However, we also know that not everyone with these conditions is being monitored regularly.
A turning tide on kidney disease awareness
A lack of awareness of kidney disease amongst the general public, along with limitations of what can be covered in a 10-minute appointment slot, means that GPs feel under pressure. The Bloody Amazing Kidneys campaign was created to help by giving members of the public an opportunity to check their risk and the tools to discuss this with their GP.
Our Let’s Talk Kidneys report found that many GPs do not feel confident talking to their patients about kidney disease. Historically, the condition has been treated in primary care until CKD stage 3 onwards, when a referral is made to secondary care. However, with new medications like SGLT2 inhibitors and a shift in the way the public engages with their health through things like wearable tech and the growth of at home testing for various conditions, the tide is turning.
Dialysis units are reaching capacity and the transplant waiting list is at its longest in over a decade. If we can identify and treat people sooner, then we have the opportunity to reduce the number of people needing dialysis or a transplant.
This will be better for people, better for the NHS, better for the economy, the environment and society at large. But we need your help.
How you can support Kidney Care UK's Bloody Amazing Kidneys Campaign
We have a range of digital and in-person resources to help you let your patients know about our Kidney Health Checker. Many of our materials are downloadable, but for others please get in touch with us at [email protected].
Kidney Care UK can create a poster for your area with a specific QR code so we are able to see how many people are scanning these and finding the Checker through these posters. Please contact us on [email protected].
They are aimed at people who do not knowingly have chronic kidney disease already so would be suitable in primary care settings, pharmacies and any non-renal medical setting (the ideal healthcare areas being cardiac or diabetes related, although public health areas such as smoking cessation clinics would also be suitable).
Let us know how many posters you would ideally like and we can advise the best way for these to be sent to you. Smaller numbers can be printed in-house but larger orders would need to be professionally printed. Whilst the charity can cover the cost of these we would only do so with the knowledge that they are going to be displayed and used. They can be printed in A4 and A3 size – they look more striking in A3.
Another way you can support would be to share via any social media channels – for example, we’ve seen Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB share on their social media.
We have resources on our website that can help with this, they can be found here:
Resources to help support our CKD awareness campaign
We have also shared two graphics with suggested text at the end of this page.
You can download these yourself or we can send them to you. If this is of interest please contact us by email.
If you’d like to include information about the campaign in any printed or emailed newsletters please let us know and we can provide copy for this as well as a trackable link so we can see how many people access the Checker through this. If you have an intranet the same copy could be used there too.
We’ve also seen some ICBs include an image from the campaign as their email footer. If you are able to include this please let us know and we will send you a copy so you can add it to your emails.
If you are able to send texts to your patients and would like to include information about the campaign in these please let us know. We can provide you with the copy and with a trackable link so we can see how many people come to the Checker via text.
We can create a tv screen animation that can be displayed across various sites if there are TV screens available. This can be run on a loop and features a QR code at the end that can be scanned to access the Checker. This would be a trackable code that allows us to see how many people access the Checker via the code.
This is a very large MP4 file so we would need to discuss how to share this with you in a way that can be uploaded to the screens. If this is of interest please contact us.
Share our #BloodyAmazingKidneys assets on your social media
You can download these images and post them on your social media platforms, we have also included some suggested text. You can find more downloadable resources to help support our campaign here.
