We were proud to promote our work to improve quality of life for everyone with kidney disease at this year's UK Kidney Week in Harrogate. Organised every year by the UK Kidney Association (UKKA), the event brings healthcare professionals, researchers and organisations working on kidney health together in one place.
Launching our latest Kidney Kitchen Magazine
Members of the Kidney Care UK team were on hand to meet healthcare professionals and share our patient resources from our UK Kidney Week stall. We took the opportunity to launch the latest issue of our Kidney Kitchen magazine, Family Favourites, packed with delicious and healthy recipes developed with children and young people in mind.
In partnership with the Paediatric Renal Nutrition Group, we took to the stage for a talk on the development of Family Favourites magazine and our work to ensure that all the recipes were accompanied with nutritional advice appropriate to young people, guaranteeing that recipes like creamy pasta with chicken and broccoli and easy apple muffins are kidney-friendly as well as tasty.
Copies of the magazine were available for visitors to pick up, alongside sweet treats from the Kidney Kitchen including our peanut butter bars.
Celebrating innovation with the Donal O'Donoghue Fellowship Award
We were thrilled to award the Donal O’Donoghue Fellowship Award for Best MDT Abstract to our two winners. Kidney dietitian Tadala Kolawole won for her paper on her work on developing Kidney Kitchen: African and Caribbean Recipes with patient and public involvement. She split the award with senior renal pharmacist Denise Cunningham for her work on the Kidney Fitness for Transplant (K-FIT) programme at Royal Free Hospital in London.
Kidney dietitian Tadala Kolawole (left) and senior renal pharmacist Denise Cunningham (right) shared the Donal O’Donoghue Fellowship Award for Best MDT Abstract.
Campaigning for kidney patients
Kidney Care UK's Policy Director Fiona Loud delivered a presentation on our report, Left to get on with it: The real impact of inadequate psychosocial support in kidney care, which last year revealed the shocking social and emotional toll that kidney disease continues to have on patients, and highlighted the lack of psychosocial support available for people with kidney disease.
Our Senior Policy Officer Samantha Sharp also shared a poster on why benefits are vital for kidney patients, particularly as people in the UK are hit with cost of living increases.
Speaking up for our #BloodyAmazingKidneys
Kidney Care UK Director of Fundraising, Marketing & Communications Laurie Cuthbert gave a presentation on the impact of our #BloodyAmazingKidneys campaign. Since we launched our awareness campaign in 2024, over 300,000 people have completed our five-minute online Kidney Health Checker.
Around half of those people have been informed that they are at higher risk of developing kidney disease, most often due to health conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes, and we have provided vital information on kidney disease for those individuals, as well as a personalised letter to take to their GP to help them discuss their kidney health.