BKPA supports Great Ormond Street Hospital

The BKPA is delighted to announce its support of a state-of-the-art new kidney centre for Great Ormond Street Hospital.  We’ll be giving the sum of £400,000 each year for five years to enable the hospital to treat children in a safer environment and one that is more spacious, comfortable and practical.

In spite of being a centre of excellence for treating children with serious kidney conditions, Great Ormond Street Hospital’s current Renal Unit is in desperate need of redevelopment.  Based in a building that dates back to the 1930’s, Victoria Ward is cramped and outdated.  It’s no longer suitable for the demands of modern medicine and 21^st Century patient care.

Lack of space means that nurses have to squeeze around bulky medical equipment to administer care to patients. In most cases there’s no space for parents to stay overnight by their child’s bedside and lack of treatment rooms and adequate storage make the ward a difficult working environment.  In addition, increased demand means that Great Ormond Street Hospital needs to increase capacity

The new children’s kidney centre, which is due to open in May 2012 will provide:

• individual rooms offering more dignity and privacy
• space to accommodate families comfortably by their child’s bedside
• play rooms with separate adolescent areas catering for all ages away from the bedside
• separate treatment rooms where clinical procedures can take place, meaning that the patient’s bed space is seen as a safe area
• new facilities for pioneering research, most importantly allowing more children to be treated

The centre has been designed with the help of the healthcare professionals and families who will use it and it will provide modern inpatient facilities that are spacious, comfortable and practical.

Melissa Bell: A message for black people

During a visit to the British Kidney Patient Association offices, Melissa Bell,singer and mother of X-Factor star Alexandra Burke showed her commitment to helping others with kidney disease and her desire to raise awareness of organ donation within the ethnic community.

“I have an important message for black people,” says Melissa. “Black people are prone to kidney disease. We need to understand this disease more and really get our minds around organ donation.  We need to move on from the fear of scars and surgery and understand the value of giving to others in life.”

Melissa, who suffered kidney failure as a result of the onset of diabetes during pregnancy at the age of 21, is determined to help others.  She says she knows what it’s like to wake up and just pray for enough energy to get through the day.  Her dialysis, three days a week in hospital leaves her incapacitated, exhausted and unable to get on with all she wants to do in life.

Melissa says her mission is to put what energy she has into positive actions.  “I’m indebted to society and the hospital for helping me.  I’ve always done work for charity and now I want to use any angry energy for positive work that will help others.  My mother died from kidney failure. I want to relish the fact that I’m alive and help others.”

Melissa has been on dialysis for 18 months.  She was so ill at the time of reaching kidney failure that her voice began to shut down and she says that she couldn’t sing anymore.  Having been a singer in the band Soul II Soul and lived for music this was devastating for Melissa, but she has gradually built up her voice again and is using it once more to help others.  Melissa gives a Christmas concert each year in her dialysis unit and is planning a singing talent contest across the UK to raise money for charities, including the British Kidney Patient Association.

A close friend has offered Melissa a kidney and she is currently being worked up for a living donor transplant.  “This transplant will give me back my energy to sing, and for that I will be truly grateful.  Black people need to remember that if they’re prepared to accept a kidney, they need to be prepared to give.”

GOING THE EXTRA MILE…

Directors from a Leeds-based PR and marketing company Harris Associates are celebrating after raising over £1500 for charity by completing the gruelling Coast to Coast cycling challenge.

Neil Craven and Jim and Jill Harris completed the 140-mile trek from Workington to Sunderland in three days and with all the money raised going to the British Kidney Patient Association the stiff legs were soon forgotten about!

Neil said: “My father has received wonderful support from the British Kidney Patient Association following a kidney transplant 20 years ago so this was the perfect way for me to show my gratitude to them.”

Jim added: “Having gone the extra mile for our clients for over 20 years now, we all felt completing a sponsored cycle for a fantastic cause would really show how dedicated we are to going the extra mile.”