Coronation Street storyline misses opportunity to raise awareness of kidney disease

Soap storylines are a really important opportunity to raise awareness of the issues, conditions and illnesses affecting people in the UK, especially those there is less awareness of, like kidney disease.

That is why we’ve been happy to speak to Coronation Street both times they have featured character Carla Connor’s experience of kidney disease and transplantation.

In the UK, 8 out of 10 people waiting for a transplant are waiting for a kidney. By presenting kidney disease and kidney transplantation storylines on prime time TV there is a real opportunity to have an impact on the transplant waiting list, which is at a ten-year high.

Fiona Loud, Policy Director at Kidney Care UK, said:

"We advised the writers of Coronation Street in 2018, when Carla’s original transplantation storyline aired, and even took them to a transplant unit to learn how amazing organ donation can be.

"We understand that soaps do have to reduce timelines in order to tell stories, but in the UK the wait for a kidney transplant is currently 2-3 years, and for some it can be much longer. It upset our community to see Carla’s transplant happen so quickly in 2018.

"When they approached us again in the summer of 2024 we provided advice as to different types of dialysis and the timelines involved between being told you would need dialysis treatment and when you might start this at home.

"We made it clear that the expedited timeline in 2018 was not realistic, and urged them to really take care with the storytelling this time to repair some of this distress in the kidney community. However this advice was not followed."

We are concerned that there are opportunities to make a difference in the awareness of kidney disease that may have been missed, and this could have a detrimental effect on the public understanding of just how serious kidney disease really is.

"We have written to the writers again to explain our concerns. It is not too late to put this right, and we hope we can work together to help tell the true story of living with kidney disease."