Hello, my name is William, I will be running the Porthcawl 10K for Tatum Parfitt who suffers with ARPKD. Below, is a wonderful and moving insight put together by his parents Ella and Connor.

Tatum was diagnosed with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) when he was only 3 months old in February 2025. With his kidneys already measuring over double in size. This became such a shock to us as young parents as it only affects 1 in 20,000 babies. We didn’t know about this Kidney disease beforehand due to not enough awareness, so searching the internet and finding people we could relate too became such a priority, to hopefully find some advice and help moving forward. Knowing our baby will eventually have kidney failure and may not be able to live his life like other children around him has been such a heartbreak to us. As of for now Tatum is doing really well, and we are so grateful that it isn’t affecting his kidneys other than the size and blood pressure at this moment. The PKD Charity aim to provide information, advice and support to those affected by Polycystic Kidney Disease, to fund research into determining the causes of PKD, discovering treatments and a cure, to raise awareness of PKD, providing information about PKD to patients, the public, the medical community and the media.