Kidney Research UK

27/07/2025

Maya was only 7 years old when her kidneys failed. She had medication to try and protect her kidneys, but by 2007, she needed dialysis.

She received a kidney from her father, Todd, but years later, she was diagnosed with kidney cancer.

Through her own journey, she has started her biomedical science degree working on a project to improve treatments for kidney patients.

“My kidney issues started when I was only two years old, but it’s unclear what kidney disease I have or what caused it. All I know is that it’s some kind of nephrotic syndrome.

“I spent five years on dialysis from the age of seven and spent most of my childhood in hospital instead of school.

“I vividly remember my transplant, that was a brilliant day. So many family members were there to celebrate the success of the surgery. I’d been waiting for that day for so long. I finally felt normal.

“I went to see my doctor about a kidney stone, but tests showed that I had cancer. That was incredibly scary.

“The anti-rejection medication I have to take to protect my transplanted kidney puts me at an increased risk of cancer, and doctors think this contributed to me having it.

“I took my cancer as a sign that I needed to do something about kidney disease for myself and others. I’m now pursuing my passion to conduct research.

“Becoming involved in kidney research and reading about all that is being done in the field is therapeutic for me. Knowing people are trying to make things better and that things will improve does help me feel calm.”

Read more of Maya’s story here: https://bit.ly/4exQTS4

25/07/2025

Research team win award for a new test to help detect kidney transplant rejection 👇

Mr Stephen Knight, and his team, have become the first British winners of the American Society of Transplantation’s Transplant Visionaries Challenge for their work developing a test to help detect kidney transplant rejection earlier, quicker, and cheaper.

They have developed a simple urine test that can detect a biomarker released during kidney transplant rejection.

A biomarker is a measurable indicator, such as blood, fluids and tissue.

This at-home test delivers results in just two hours, allowing doctors to monitor the status of a transplanted kidney and quickly assess whether a patient’s anti-rejection medicines are working. This could also limit the need for a painful biopsy.

Congratulations to Mr Knight and the team! 🎉

Find out how you can keep research going here: https://bit.ly/44zR1fm

24/07/2025

We’re revved up and ready to go!

As the charity of the year for The Vintage Sports-Car Club - VSCC, we’re thrilled to be part of their Prescott Hill Climb, 2 – 3 August.

Are you a vintage motorsport enthusiast? The famous Prescott weekend is the crown jewel event of the VSCC’s repertoire, drawing competitors and spectators from afar to compete and watch the spectacular cars tackling this popular hill.

You'll find us near the clubhouse at the event, so swing by, say hi, and meet our team. We’d love to chat and share more about our work.

A huge thank you to the VSCC for this incredible opportunity.

Tickets are on sale now: https://bit.ly/413mzZS

The famous Prescott weekend on the historic short course is the Crown Jewel event of the VSCC’s repertoire, drawing competitors and spectators from afar to compete and watch the spectacular cars tackling this popular hill.

23/07/2025

John and his son were both diagnosed with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) in 1995, after his son began experiencing severe migraines. The wider family were all tested, but only John and his son were found to have the condition.

“I remember being totally confused when we were given the diagnosis. It was something we’d never heard of. What I read frightened me, as I’d already passed the life expectancy for someone with the condition.

“My kidney health deteriorated and by 2014 my kidneys failed, meaning I needed to begin dialysis treatment. The biggest impact was back in 2011, having to give up my job as a clinical supervisor with the Northwest Ambulance Service. That was a huge blow financially.

“Thankfully, my son has been affected very little by his kidney disease due to advances in treatments for ADPKD. He was one of the first patients to receive tolvaptan medication and that has protected his kidney function.

In 2018, after four years on dialysis, John’s daughter surprised him with the news that she had been tested and was a match to donate a kidney.

“After my daughter left, I just burst into tears thinking about the gift she was giving me and how it would transform my life. To prepare, I had my left kidney removed to make room for its replacement. My kidney weighed 6.3kg!

“I have lived longer than was predicted back in the nineties and I’m so happy medical advances since my early years have meant the life expectancy of people with ADPKD continues to rise. That, along with this incredible gift from my daughter, has meant I have been able to enjoy time with my family – including grandchildren and great grandchildren. I’m pleased to say none of them have inherited ADPKD.”

Read more of John’s story here: https://bit.ly/4o5DAwI

John has ADPKD which caused his kidneys to fail. Advances in medicine have protected his son's kidney function.

22/07/2025

New grant awarded into kidney transplant research 👇

Dr Rhys Evans will investigate systems and tests that tell us about the health of a kidney transplant, to see how they could lead to personalised care for kidney transplant patients in the UK.

“We need better ways of individualising immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients. To do so, we need to firstly understand how feasible and reliable current precision medicine techniques are, that might help us to do this” - Dr Rhys Evans.

During this project, Rhys and the team will look at areas including:

- A transplant outcome prediction system
- Blood and urine tests
- Genetic signals

They’ll apply these to results from previously transplanted patients to see if having such strategies would have changed the decisions made by both patients and doctors.

This project will provide us with more evidence on the impact that precision medicine may have on patient care in the UK.

This will also help to pave the way for future studies to look at how these systems and tests could enable transplant care to be personalised.

Read more here: https://bit.ly/40ZtSlo

20/07/2025

Earlier in the year, we shared a story of Vidur, whose beloved wife of 60 years, sadly passed away from kidney disease. In her memory, he left a gift in her name which has funded a new research award.

The Sabita Dindayal Award will support a PhD project aimed at improving the lives of kidney patients, continuing Sabita’s lifelong commitment to helping others.

We are pleased to announce that we have awarded this grant to Dr Peter Wing.

Dr Wing will be investigating the BK virus, with the aim of finding new treatments for patients who have received a kidney transplant.

When speaking to Vidur earlier in the year about his late wife, he said: “I’ve always been proud of Sabita and feel so privileged we got to spend sixty years together. That is the most important thing in my life. Everyone should be able to have a good quality of life and enjoy their time. That’s why research into kidney disease is so vital.”

Read more of Dr Wing’s work here: https://bit.ly/457MRwC

17/07/2025

New research results into kidney stones🎉

Professor Sarah Howles, and her team, have discovered DNA changes that likely control people’s calcium and phosphate levels and cause kidney stones.

Treating patients with existing drugs and supplements that affect calcium and phosphate levels could reduce the risk of stones forming by up to 90%.

“𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴. 𝘉𝘺 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴, 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦, 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴.” - 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝗛𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝘀

Read more on these results here: https://bit.ly/46sZNhw

Image caption: X-ray showing stones in the kidney system (the partially opaque dots either side of the spine)

16/07/2025

Last week, we shared the NHS Blood and Transplant’s latest annual report. It revealed that almost 7,000 people are on the active kidney transplant list, increasing the average wait time for a kidney transplant to 503 days.

We understand that urgent change is needed so that more people can receive life-saving transplants.

So, what are we doing?

- Investing £1.5 million to researchers through our current live grants awards. Some grant rounds are specific to kidney transplantation such as the Professor Michael Nicholson Awards.

- Raising awareness of living kidney donation through the Donate a Kidney UK campaign as part of the Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation, with our friends Give A Kidney.

- Campaigning for change. The policy team are using all our resources to get kidney disease seen by the decision makers, with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, in attendance at our most recent event.

How can you help?

Do not underestimate the power of your voice.

Together with Kidney Care UK, NKF - National Kidney Federation, Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Charity UK, and the UK Kidney Association we launched an open letter after kidney disease was not mentioned in the government’s 10 Year Health Plan.

This letter will be delivered to the prime minister, and you can add your name to help the 7 million overlooked and ignored.

Read and sign the letter here: https://bit.ly/44LexWF

15/07/2025

Mum of two, Clare, has spent the past two and a half years rebuilding her life, after a tumour on her kidney led to thrombosis, a stroke, kidney failure, a five-month stay in hospital, and re-learning how to walk and talk again.

“I had been stressed in my previous work and had high blood pressure. The doctor and I thought it could have been early menopause and I was prescribed medication for this.

“However, a subsequent scan showed a tumour on my kidney, and a thrombus [blood clot] was found in the inferior vena cava from my kidney to my heart.

“In October 2022, my body was cut open for three days while I had multiple surgeries at Basildon University Hospital.

“My remaining kidney ceased to function, and I have needed dialysis ever since to keep me alive.

“If you didn’t know me prior to my illness, you might not be able to tell that I am unwell, but I know I’m different now. I can hear my voice isn’t the same as it was, and I find it hard to walk in a straight line. I’ve had to build up my strength just to do simple tasks like holding a saucepan.

“Whilst in hospital, my family rallied around me, but I didn’t want people to visit and see how I was struggling.

“I was in bed and had a catheter. It has taken a long time to feel comfortable with myself again. I hated looking in the mirror because of the scars from being operated on. But now I see that it all tells a story.

“Throughout this I’ve been having dialysis in Colchester. It took me a long time to accept that this is how my life is now. The sessions are long, often far exceeding the four hours needed to be on the machine itself.

“Going through this has changed my perspective on life and helped me appreciate what is actually important – my family and my health. You don’t know what’s around the corner, so you need to make the most of life.

“Me and my husband have talked about our dreams of selling the house and going travelling around the world in a camper van if it became possible. I hope one day it will be.”

Read more of Clare's inspiring story here: https://bit.ly/4nvYAfF

13/07/2025

John was first diagnosed with kidney disease at only three weeks old. In 2014, he had his third kidney transplant, and his latest new kidney, nicknamed ‘Thridney’, is still going strong to this day.

“When I was born in the early 80s, they didn’t have 20-week scans, so it was picked up late and by the time they found it I was very ill. They saved my life, but significant damage was done to the nephrons (filters) in my kidneys, and they slowly deteriorated.

“I didn’t really know the ramifications of my kidney disease until my mid-twenties. I had a routine appointment and was told that my kidneys had seriously deteriorated, meaning I’d need dialysis and/or a transplant in my thirties. That was a complete shock.

“I work as an actor but when my kidneys were failing, I had to give that up. I wasn’t able to function as much and acting can be very physical as well as mental. My career had just started taking off. I’d done a feature film, as well as appearing in programmes like Doctors and Emmerdale. Then it all ground to a halt, and I had to put my career on hold.

“Fortunately, I had a side career in IT, so I was able to do software testing.

“Just before the transplant I was struggling more and more. It was frustrating because I couldn’t do the things I wanted to. I always enjoyed going to the gym but when I’d try it’d be upsetting because I just couldn’t function as normal.

“The call came at just the right time because my mum was going to be a live donor and thankfully didn’t need to go through that. I’m very grateful to have received a kidney from a deceased donor in that respect. Thankfully I had a pre-dialysis transplant.

“There were so many checks to go through, so it creates a level of anxiety because you’re not sure if it’s going to happen. When it did, there were real mixed emotions of feeling excited it’d be me, but also guilt because this guy who looked so ill was missing out.

“I wrote to my deceased donor's family afterwards but can’t imagine what they were going through. That person made an amazing decision to donate and must have saved at least four lives via organ donation. I’ll forever be grateful.”

By signing up to our Superdraw, you’ll help fund research into transplants so patients like John can enjoy their kidneys for longer. Find out more here: https://bit.ly/40jmXU3

11/07/2025

After finding out his younger brother, James, was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune condition called C3 glomerulonephritis (C3GN), Edwin inspired his school’s Boat Club and wider community to come together and raise over £18,000!

Their challenge was to row 3.9 million metres, the equivalent of 48 marathons, back-to-back, in one week.

“James is my brother and the best person in the world and I really wanted to help him out.

“Since James was diagnosed, the support from the rowing community has been incredible. Our event was not only about raising funds and awareness for Kidney Research UK, but also about showing the strength and unity of the sport that has helped James and our family through such a challenging time.”

James says: “It’s been tough at times, especially with the medication making me feel tired, but the school has been really supportive when I’ve needed time off.

“I’m so grateful to everyone involved in the fundraiser, especially Ed. There are loads of conditions like mine. None of them have much funding and people don't know enough about them. It has been incredible to raise so much for research and increase awareness of kidney disease.”

A huge well done and thank you to all who took part💜

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3ZcFfpd

Bradford Grammar School

10/07/2025

Reece and Shona’s world fell apart just before Christmas in 2024, when they devastating lost their two-year-old son, Ari, after an unsuccessful kidney transplant.

Ari bravely fought chronic kidney disease throughout his life, inspiring everyone who knew him with his strength and resilience.

In Ari’s honour, Reece and Shona demonstrated those traits in abundance, raising over £8,500 by completing the Peak District Ultra Challenge alongside their family on 28 June.

walked 25km in the sunshine, enjoyed breathtaking views and pushing themselves on in memory of Ari. We are incredibly grateful for their support at such a difficult time in their lives.

We will keep Ari in our thoughts as we strive to end kidney disease.

You can check out their fundraiser in support of our work: https://bit.ly/4lKQUEF