It’s that time of year again where I talk about Kidney health and CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease).
I return to this every year and will continue to do so in memory of Charlotte and the battle she faced for a decade of her life with C3G.
Chronic kidney disease is the 10th biggest killer world wide. In the UK it affects 1 in 10 people. And in some cases, it is not detected until you have already lost 90% of kidney function already.
Kidneys are important because they remove toxins, excess water and waste from your body, they regulate your blood pressure, and they activate vitamin D to help look after your bones and muscles. Overall, they are essential in maintaining a healthy body.
Signs that you may have a kidney disease are; having a reduced appetite, swollen ankles (aka retaining fluid – my sister also got swollen eyes and ankles because her body retained fluid), lack of concentration, fatigue, foamy or bloody urine. Others I can note from my sister’s experience also include high blood pressure, chronic pain and chronic headaches.
Aside from all the physical affects chronic kidney disease can have on your body, it also greatly impacts everything else in your life; mental health, social life, work and education. There is no area of life that a kidney disease would not interrupt. Take it from someone who watched it happen to the person I cherished most in this world.
There is no cure for CKD and whilst catching it early can increase your chances of saving your kidneys, there is no guarantee it will. Even if you catch it early, you will still have to come to accept the fact that one day you will most likely need a transplant or dialysis, whether you liked it or not. Now imagine having to accept the idea of this when you are only 8 years old. Before you have even started to get excited about trying alcohol or learning to drive, you have to accept the fact that your body will fail you at some unknown time in the future.
I can’t begin to imagine how hard this was for my sister and for all the others out there that had their whole lives ahead of them only to have it torn from them by one diagnosis. I always wished that I could take the disease for her, to let her have all the years she was supposed to have instead of knowing they would be taken. Perhaps this is why she seemed to have a careless attitude when it came to life, for her it was too short to waste on stupid things and she made no effort to hide it either. She always seemed so fearless despite her situation.
World Kidney Day is an annual event that seeks to support not only the sufferers of CKD, but the families like mine that changed to help and support their loved one with CKD. It aims to raise awareness of kidney disease, to remind people how important they really are to your overall health and to try and raise funds for treatments that can allow those with CKD to live their lives despite their conditions.
The 7 main charities that make up the KCT (Kidney Charities Together) are:
Kidney Care UK: https://kidneycareuk.org/
Kidney Research UK (My family’s personal choice): https://www.kidneyresearchuk.org/
Kidney Wales: https://kidneywales.cymru/
National Kidney Federation: https://www.kidney.org.uk/
PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease): https://pkdcharity.org.uk/
Popham Kidney Support: https://pophamkidneysupport.org.uk/
The UK Kidney Association: https://ukkidney.org/
So this World Kidney Day, take some time to educate yourself, be an organ donor, look after yourself, and make yourself aware of CKD and those who are invisible to the world because their disease is not always visible to it. My sister hated that most, that whilst she looked like an ordinary teenager, if she ever took a space reserved for the disabled or the ill she would get accusatory looks even if she had every right to be there. So let’s not be ignorant in 2024 and not judge people before we know their story.
If you can and are willing, it would mean everything to me if you could donate to any of these charities, I know it’s what my sister would want and I will be making a donation myself to honor her memory.
And if money is tight (because when is it not) there are plenty of other ways to get involved here; https://www.worldkidneyday.co.uk/get-involved/
Lizzy Harrison 