As part of National Transplant week I visited Camberwell Haemodialysis unit which is at 61-65 Paulet Road in Camberwell. What looks like just another business park off a residential street homes a dedicated team of staff and a community of patients who regularly attend for dialysis.
Along with being a opportunity to meet the partients and nurses this was a huge learning experience for me having little background knowledge into Kidney disease. Patients and nurses took time to give me a very frank and informative insight into the condition and I wish to be honest in that I was deeply moved by what I heard.
Many patients return three times a week for four hours at a time for their treament. Along with this huge pull on their time they have limits on the liquid they can consume and on their diet. I could clearly see the impact that this life saving treatment had together with the community that had built among the patients forced together but providing invaluable support for each other.
Please imagine for a moment what it would be like if for 12 hours for a week you had to dit in a clinic with a tube attached to you. A treatment you would not need if you could find a transplant.
Mayor of Lambeth visiting Camberwell Haemodialysis Unit
It was explained to me that there were several reasons for why people ended up with the need for dialysis, which you find out more about on the NHS website, however one former patient told me how she caught a virus and four weeks later her kidneys failed. She is now a former patient because her husband was a match and donated one of his kidneys.
Whilst I had heard before about the urgent need for more donors, and for more people to sign up as organ donors, this put a human face on that need – and I could see first hand what a huge impact those donors could make on the lives of others.
Please visit the organ donors website now and register. You could truely make a difference after your death, bringing new life to others.
Patients and nurses have made a ‘Garden of Life’ where those who have been given new life after a transplant plant a rose tree to celebrate. It would be great for there to be so many roses that another garden will be needed.
