Local kidney charity's latest initiative announced

Kilcullen GAA's Paul Bell will be riding in this year's Punchestown Charity Race.

Today is World Kidney Day, and the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund founded by Kilcullen kidney transplant recipient James Nolan is taking the opportunity to announce a new initiative, writes Brian Byrne.

In partnership with the Irish Kidney Association, the PKRF is setting up a volunteer-led service to discuss concerns around kidney disease with people recently diagnosed.

"When people are initially given the diagnosis they go into a kind of shock and don't always take in what they are being told," says James, who is alive and well today thanks to receiving a donated kidney from his sister Catherine decades ago. "I have come across this many times, and it also applies to their families in many cases. So for some time in PKRF we have been looking how we can address it."

The service, which it is hoped to have up and running in the next six months, will provide a cadre of people living with kidney disease who are trained to talk with the newly diagnosed and answer all their questions and fears.

"It will require finding the right person to run the service, and then recruiting volunteers who will be properly trained in doing this," says James, who has championed the cause of organ donor awareness all his adult life.

Since it was founded, PKRF has provided a wide range of support activities for people living with kidney disease, raising some €1,570,000 to enable this. The Fund has supported many initiatives including the landmark project — a state of the art renal unit in Temple Street Children’s Hospital, contributed to the refurbishment of the dialysis unit at Sligo General Hospital, provides support to continuous research programmes and sponsored trips to ski camps for younger kidney patients.

The key PKRF fundraiser is the last race of the Punchestown Festival each year, a charity sweepstake where amateur riders raise sponsorship money. This year will be the 33rd anniversary of the race, on Saturday 30 April.

One of the riders will be Kilcullen man Paul Bell, who was a member of the Kilcullen GAA Senior Football Team that won the Junior County Championship earlier this year.

"It's great to have someone from Kilcullen in the race," says James Nolan. "Apart from working to be fit for the football, he was also taking the time to ride out and get his licence from the RACE riding apprentice school in Kildare."

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