Popham Kidney Support, the Swansea based kidney charity, has unveiled plans for further growth and expansion at its annual Supporters Lunch as it gears for its tenth year in operation.

The charity’s employees, volunteers, supporters, and partners attended the annual event, held at the Mercure Hotel, Swansea, on Thursday 15thDecember.

In 2022, the charity raised £135,000 and supported 3,323 people affected by kidney disease. It also rebranded and launched a new website as it gears up to deliver on ambitious plans for next year, which will also be its 10th anniversary.

An important part of that will be expanding its flagship service, Peer Support Service, to cover all Wales. In support of this development, the charity announced at the annual event that they had been awarded a grant from The National Lottery, a 5-year grant from People & Places to develop Peer Support Services throughout Wales. It recently carried out a roadshow to North Wales in order to increase awareness of the charity in that area and to discuss launching kidney cafés.

To further support this expansion and to support more kidney patients and their families, it has hired a new Patient Services Coordinator. Geraint John has supported the charity for almost a decade and has been heavily involved as a Volunteer Peer Mentor and a leader of the charity’s Exercise for Health Group for six years.

In addition, the charity will be employing a Peer Support Manager, Gail Williams, retired Lead Nurse for the Welsh Kidney Network, who will be joining the charity in the New Year to support with the development of the Peer Support Service across Wales, expanding its recruitment of volunteers, counsellors and peer mentors.

Over the next five years, the charity aims to expand its team of peer mentors to 123, ensuring that many more patients can alleviate fears, improve self-esteem and battle loneliness.

Additionally, the charity aims to recruit a further eight volunteer counsellors and 30 Youth Peer Mentors from across Wales, who will provide one-to-one support to youths affected by kidney disease and their families, while contributing to the development of its Children & Youth Services.

In 2022, the charity also made strides towards its target of raising £130,000 for the Children’s Kidney Centre at Cardiff & Vale University Hospital in 2022. More than £50,000 has already been raised towards this target.

The day before its annual Supporters Lunch, it officially launched a new corporate partnership campaign, created in order to help progress the fundraising for this project, at a Christmas wine and cheese event at Morgan’s Hotel, Swansea. So far, it has welcomed a number of corporate partners including FAI Automotive, Falck, Jigsaw Creative and Swansea Building Society.

Joanne Popham, Popham Kidney Support CEO, said:

“2022 has been a very promising and developmental year for the charity. Expanding our team and reach has been at the forefront of our vision moving forward and will be our focus going into next year.
I cannot thank my team, our trustees, volunteers, fundraisers and supporters for their fantastic hard work and support over the past year and we are excited about what the future holds.”