We have joined forces with Kidney Care UK, the UK's leading kidney patient support charity, and Bristol Water to support more than 200,000 people with chronic kidney disease in the South West of England.

Kidney Care UK provides a range of various support services to help the 3.5million people with kidney disease across the UK. Through the collaboration and partnership with Wessex Water and Bristol Water, thousands of people with kidney disease in the South West of England will be able to receive financial help and extra support through the Watersure scheme and Priority Services Register. In addition, they will be able to receive targeted support from the charity including assistance with benefits, financial hardship grants, free counselling and free community support from the charity’s network of patient support and advocacy officers.

People with kidney disease have been disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis, particularly when it comes to utility usage and costs. Kidney Care UK found that when it asked over 1,000 people with kidney disease about the rising costs of living, almost two thirds (60%) said this was something that they worried about all the time.

There are 4,604 people in the Wessex Water and Bristol Water supply area who have had a kidney transplant or are on dialysis, either in a hospital or at home. Home dialysis in particular is very energy intensive and requires a considerable amount of water usage. This treatment relies on a machine doing the work of your kidneys and filters your blood for hours at a time. Home dialysis machines can use as much as 7,502 litres a week. That works out as the equivalent of almost 80 showers a week, on top of usual water usage.

Laurie Cuthbert, Director of Fundraising, Marketing and Communications at Kidney Care UK, said: “This is an exciting relationship to transform the support that our kidney community will receive in the South West of England. We are pleased to be working in partnership to help support more of the 216,962 people living with chronic kidney disease in this region to enable them to receive support appropriate to their condition. The partnership will allow all three organisations to raise greater awareness of chronic kidney disease more generally and be supported with community awareness days and drop-in clinics at dialysis units across the Wessex and Bristol network area.”

Stephanie Martin, Customer Experience Project Manager at Bristol Water added: “Bristol Water is pleased to be in partnership with Kidney Care UK.  We are always looking for new ways to reach people who could benefit from knowing more about what we do and how we can offer support with paying water bills and also being on our priority services register, which aims to support members of our community who may need a little extra help.”

Kate Robbins, head of customer policy at Wessex Water, commented: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Kidney Care UK. We know that many people living with chronic kidney disease need to use more water, or could benefit from extra support during an emergency such as a water outage.

“Through this partnership, we will be able to reach more of our customers to raise awareness of the help available to them.”