I'm a kidney physician working at Imperial College and also happen to be a Trustee of Kidney Research UK - I'm passionate about the Charity as it aims to support brilliant teams of doctors, researchers and nurses carrying out life-saving research – research that makes a difference to all those living with kidney disease.  And having looked after kidney patients for the past 30 years or so, I know how challenging it is to have any form of kidney disease and how research has already done so much to transform lives. 

The mission of Kidney Research UK is to end kidney disease – never more apt than in this era; In the UK there have been 683 deaths from
COVID-19 in in centre haemodialysis patients from a population of around 24,290 (2018 figures), nearly 3%. Shielding only works so far and when patients have no choice but to travel frequently to a dialysis unit it is unsurprising that there is a higher rate of infection in this group. This has been devastating for families and units – research to prevent kidney disease and make dialysis safer has never been more necessary…

I've chosen this challenge as I have been fortunate enough to have two completely new knees since August this year.  The old ones had crumbled and walking even short distances had become difficult.  I'm now a few weeks post my second knee replacement and I can already see how wonderful it is to walk for pleasure once again, with none of the old pain (tho a few new ones!! - they will pass) - eternally grateful to my wonderful orthopaedic surgeon and my physio who've got me to here.  I'm up to walking about 6000 steps a day so it will be a real "step up" for me to get to 12,000 steps a day for at least 12 days in Dec - but I will do it for Kidney Research UK and if you spur me on enough.  So please do sponsor me and encourage me all the way....  I started with a modest aim to raise to £1200 - but thanks to some very generous early donors have already raised that - so let's aim in the first instance for the steps I'm managing at the moment in £ ie.£6000 but what I'd really like to reach is at least £12,000.... 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.