Irish Kidney Association

The Irish Kidney Association is a charitable voluntary organisation founded in 1978. We are dedicated to meeting the needs of renal patients and their families and carers, living with and affected by end stage renal disease. These needs are spread across all aspects of life – medical, social and psychological. The profile of the kidney patient ranges from infanthood to the elderly who are undergoing various methods of treatment – haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis (both CAPD and APD) and kidney transplantation. Kidney disease affects all age groups, both men and women.The reality of kidney disease is that it may impinge on many strands of a person’s life including: health, employment, education, social life and relationships, physical fitness and general well-being. The progression of this disease means that the patient requires a lifetime of treatment: regular out-patient monitoring, on-going medication, surgery for dialysis access, dialysis, transplantation, failed transplant, re-dialysis, re-transplantation, and so on often developing additional health problems such as hypertension, bone disease, restricted mobility, cardiac complications, etc. A simple event such as booking a holiday with family and friends will be restricted by the limited availability of holiday centres with dialysis facilities.While the patient is regularly away from home, receiving medical treatment for extended periods of time, the burden of the function of the sole carer and provider of a most stressed family unit falls on the spouse and carers. The priority of the association is to ensure that the unmet needs of the renal patient and family are addressed by the statutory health and education system either directly from the mainstream or via an association like ourselves.Within our resources, derived from voluntary donations and fundraising, we attempt to contribute to fulfilling these needs directly to the patient and family.