How we use your donations

The Friends Membership Scheme is aiming to raise £120,000 by March 2008 to fund six new Haemodialysis machines in the dialysis unit.

Any additional money raised will contribute towards the general fund which supports the hospital, our patients and their families.

What is Dialysis?

Dialysis treatment is needed by children whose kidneys stop working properly. Our patients receive treatment in the unit three times a week, some travelling from a considerable distance. Dialysis machines effectively take over the function of the kidneys when they are unable to work properly by removing waste products from the blood and excess water from the body. Each treatment takes approximately four hours.

Ward Sister Laine Pilgrim says, ‘these new dialysis machines make a real difference to our patients; they are more reliable, safer and enable more finely tuned dialysis treatment to meet individual children’s needs. Thank you to the Friends Membership Scheme for helping to fund six new machines.’

Other projects supported with funding from the Friends membership scheme include:

• Free parent accommodation in the Italian Building for two years
• Contributed £100,000 to The Tinker Bell Play Centre
• An Electron Microscope for the Histopathology Department
• Key-hole surgery equipment
• A Single Cell Manipulation System used by researchers to investigate the development of cancer

• Individual membership for adults (over 16)
• Family membership
• Children & senior citizen