Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

My husband did an amazingly selfless thing --  in November 2012 he donated a kidney altruistically to a man he had just met. He was moved to help after seeing the impact of kidney failure and three 4-hour dialysis session a week had on a person.  The operation at Royal London Hospital was huge success and both donor and recipient are in excellent health. But what about all those people still on the waiting list for a donor kidney and those going through dialysis? 

I wanted to do something for them, so decided to use my crochet blog (crochetime.net) to ask for donations of crochet blankets to give to the kidney disease patients at Royal London Hospital. My hope is that the blankets bring them hope and comfort.  We deliver the blankets when my husband has to goes to the hospital for his yearly living donor check-up. Crochet For Kidneys is now in it's 4th year and in total we have donated 65 blankets. With a month to go before we deliver the blankets for 2016, we already have 31 blankets with more blankets on their way.

But this year, in stead of only giving crocheted blankets to the patients, I also want to raise money for the excellent work that the The Royal London Hospital Kidney Patients Association ("KPA") does. 

The Royal London Hospital KPA is essentially a self help group, has no paid officials and membership is free. In furtherance of its aims, the Royal London Hospital KPA:

• provides mutual help, advice and encouragement and organises social events for patients; 
• organises various fund-raising events and issues a regular newsletter; 
• runs holiday homes for haemodialysis, CAPD and transplant patients; 
• sends a team to the British Transplant Games;
• funds entirely the Renal Amenity Fund at the Hospital and contributes to the Hospital's Renal Diseases Research Fund and the Renal Transplant Research Fund;
• buys medical equipment and improves facilities for patients;
• sponsors nurses to attend the European Dialysis Nurses’ Association conferences;
• sponsors translations of literature for patients from ethnic minorities;

I’m sure you agree that the work they do is important and I hope you will be inspired to make a donation. This is your chance to be a part of Crochet For Kidneys even if you can’t crochet or have already contributed a blanket but want to give your friends and family the chance to help kidney disease patients.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.