This Saturdays Mid-Ulster derby between Glenavon and Portadown at Mourneview Park will shine a spotlight on the UK’s leading kidney patient support charity, Kidney Care UK.
The match will be in memory of Amy Smith from south-west England who sadly passed away last year. Amy had received a kidney transplant from Glenavon team attendant, Stephen Topping who stepped forward as a stranger to donate to Amy after his granddaughter faced kidney problems.
Chronic Kidney disease is a common, long term and irreversible condition affecting up to 7.2m million people or around 1 in 10 of the adult population in the UK. Numbers are expected to rise significantly over the next decade, driven by the increase in type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. A significant proportion of patients with CKD (around 3.5 million) develop advanced CKD and around 30,000 of these patients go on to develop kidney failure.
Kidney Care UK exists to ensure no one has to face chronic kidney disease alone with their team of compassionate and understanding experts working across the UK alongside patients’ multi-disciplinary clinical teams. They are there for kidney patients to help them navigate the system, make life easier and provide expert support and help.
Kidney Care UK gives support to more than 100 patients every week and invests over £3 million each year in patient grants. They also provide practical and emotional support, funding patient-centred research projects and improving care services, having invested more than £10m in the NHS over the past decade to improve services for patients, funding renal social workers, play therapists to support paediatric patients and residential weekends for young adults transitioning from youth to adulthood.
You can read more about Kidney Care UK’s work via Kidney Care UK, the UK’s leading kidney patient support charity | Kidney Care UK
Both teams will wear warm up t-shirt with Kidney Care UK’s logo and volunteers will be on hand at the game to collect donations on behalf of the charity.