NATIONAL EVENTS 2008

Parliamentary reception

Although there is a lot of policy from the Government that support kidney services, we want to maintain awareness of kidney disease amongst politicians across all parties, to highlight the good work that already happened and to build on this to make services for kidney patients better.

We will be holding a reception in the House of Commons attended by MPs and Members of the House of Lords from all political parties. We have received confirmation that Health Minister Ann Keen MP intends to be present as well as Dr Donal O’Donoghue , the National Clinical Director for Kidney Services, who will be speaking; and we will have in the audience Officials from the department of Health and many representatives of professional bodies and national patient organisations.

We will be emphasising the need for more support to help people avoid kidney disease by looking after their kidneys, as well as the need to continue the work to provide better and more accessible services for people with kidney disease.

If you have sent in a wish for better services, it will be sealed in a time capsule at the Parliamentary reception, along with messages of support from many people including the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron MP and the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg MP.

To co-ordinate with local Kidney Patient Associations around the country, we will be holding a balloon release in London to mark the day.

Parliamentary briefing

Kidney Research UK will be disseminating a briefing to the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament and other key health and research organisations as well as the media. The objective of the brief is to keep kidney disease high on the agenda in addition to highlighting the need for more support for research activity.
The briefing paper is available for downloading here.

Reception at the Queens Medical Centre, Edinburgh

As a result of increased interest generated by World Kidney Day activities, Kidney Research UK will be holding a reception at Queens Medical Centre, Edinburgh, for Members of the Scottish Parliament and VIPs to see the importance and impact of Kidney Research UK’s vital work.