People from several black and minority ethnic (BME) groups are at a significantly increased risk of developing kidney failure. This risk can be five times greater for South Asian people for example, even higher if they have diabetes. 28% of people waiting for a kidney transplant are from BME groups but unfortunately, only around 3.5% of people on the Organ Donor Register are from these groups. Since we need to achieve the best genetic match possible between donor and recipient, the shortage of donors from BME groups compounds the problem.
Kidney Research UK is determined to improve kidney health outcomes for BME people. Ten years ago, we started work on the problem. Over this period we have run a number of highly successful projects to help people understand the risks they face and what steps they need to take to reduce that risk. We developed our ‘Peer Educator Model’, where people from ‘at risk’ groups are trained by Kidney Research UK to talk to members of their 
community about kidney health and the risks of kidney disease. Through this work we have met with over 20,000 people in mosques, temples, melas and other cultural events across the country.
We have undertaken research to understand what cultural and/or religious barriers exist that prevent more people from coming forward to sign up to the Organ Donor Register. We talked to BME communities about the findings of this research and as a consequence have increased sign ups to the organ donor register by 1,500 so far. We were delighted to receive an Association of Medical Research Charities Award for this work in 2011.
You can read more about our impact on increasing organ donation by accessing our report to the All Party Parliamentary Kidney Group here and a presentation with some pictures and graphs here.
