World Kidney Day – 10 March 2016

World Kidney Day is an annual global awareness and education event involving local, national and international kidney charities, healthcare professionals, patient groups and individuals.

The UK initiative is led by the ‘Kidney Charities Together Group’, comprised of the five leading UK kidney charities.

The 2016 campaign has a specific focus on Kidney Disease and Children. The campaign aims to draw public attention to the importance of kidney health – what can be done to protect kidneys before disease strikes, and to assist patients who already have chronic kidney disease.

A useful resource for parents or carers of a child with a kidney condition is the online information resource infoKID.

infoKID which produces reliable and relevant information on a range of kidney conditions, symptoms, causes, diagnosis, treatment and management. It is a partnership project of three organisations: The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, British Association for Paediatric Nephrology and the British Kidney Patient Association.

Kidney Facts

• Our kidneys filter around 180 litres of blood every day
• Kidney disease is common and can affect anyone, including children
• Every year 60,000 people in the UK are being treated for kidney failure
• 3,000 kidney transplants take place in the UK every year but over 5,500 people are still waiting
• Nearly 1,000 children in the UK have kidneys which have completely failed and require lifelong treatment
• High blood pressure accelerates kidney damage
• Diabetes is the biggest cause of kidney failure
• Smoking slows blood flow to the kidneys and stops them working properly