Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Each year Atmos International raise money by entering a team of
runners into the Great Manchester Runs.  Not only does this provide some healthy competition within the office it also helps support and raise as much money as we can for our chosen charity which this year is Kidneys for Life.

The charity has a personal note for us. One of our colleagues Will suffers from renal disease. After misdiagnosis as a child, Will was eventually diagnosed with chronic renal failure at the age of 11. Over 35 years ago, renal research was not as advanced as it is today and treatment was limited to surgery, diet restrictions, medication and dialysis. The long term effects of renal disease meant that Will had to have two major operations at a young age, impacting his early high school years. Sadly, despite interventions and regular monitoring by the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital renal team, Will’s final kidney went into end-stage renal failure when he was 21. Multiple forms of dialysis followed. A transplant from Will’s father sadly didn’t work which was devastating to the whole family and left him back on gruelling dialysis.

Luckily in 1998, Will received the great news that a transplant was waiting for him at MRI. Despite initial problems in the first few weeks, Will’s transplanted kidney has been functioning for the last 20 years. However, transplantation isn’t a cure. It is a long-term treatment. Many transplant patients do not have the same luck, including some of Will’s friends. Those who wait on dialysis have a ‘window of opportunity’ for a fixed period of time.

Will’s treatment and care at MRI has been excellent. The Kidneys for Life team enable doctors, nurses and the medical teams to focus on finding new treatments, surgical interventions and care programmes for patients within Greater Manchester, the North West and beyond.

Today Will is happily married with two fantastic children. Life could have been a lot different without programmes like Kidneys for Life.

Kidneys for Life provides support in terms of research, grants and equipment to patients and medical staff. Their aim is to make kidneys last for the life time of a patient. Sadly this is not currently the case and research is vital to help identify causes of kidney disease, transplant problems and dialysis. Kidneys for Life has been helping patients of MRI, the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Salford Royal Hospitals for over 40 years.