Kidney patients are being priced out of existence

Aim

Energy costs are pushing kidney patients over the edge with worry about powering life saving equipment. Our crisis grants will help them.

The rising costs of living are making just staying alive even harder - it feels like we are being priced out of existence.

I’m Phoenix. I live in Coventry with my wife Sam and our daughter Rosie. I am one of more than 3.5 million people in the UK who lives with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Rising costs mean that I am having to make impossible choices between putting food on the table, heating my home, or running my dialysis machine.

Living with kidney disease impacts every part of my life. I experience heavy fatigue and pain. Day-to-day activities like working and socialising have become more difficult, and I find it really hard to stay warm.

My kidneys can’t remove toxic waste and fluid from my body. Undergoing dialysis at home in my living room five nights per week keeps me alive.  I count myself lucky to be able to dialyse at home but the cost of running my dialysis equipment has soared as electricity prices have rocketed.

There’s no escaping the fact that our energy costs will rise even higher, even though we have effectively turned the heating off at home.

It now costs more than £1000 a year just to run my dialysis machine. That's on top of the cost of cooking and trying to keep warm.

The stark reality is that it is costing me more and more simply to stay alive.

Kidney Care UK exists to support everyone with CKD facing similar situations to mine. Their grants help towards the rising costs of staying alive. The cost-of-living crisis is having a devastating impact across society, but people like me are being hit the hardest. In the last two months alone, Kidney Care UK has seen demand for grants to help people pay their heating bills more than double - and the need is still growing.

Please give what you can to Kidney Care UK so they can provide immediate support to more people with CKD like me.

Reaching the target will mean that Kidney Care UK can help 25 people like me cope with the costs of staying alive.

Thank you.

This project successfully funded on 13th February 2023