Little did we know when we chose Think Kidneys as the name for the programme just how much we would rely on it on so many levels to spread the word about our work. It’s simple, direct and in marketing speak, ‘it does what it says on the can’. It’s a good fit for all our NHS and social care colleagues and it’s the basis of what we are asking people to do regardless of roles, department, sector or organisation. We simply want health and social care colleagues to ‘think kidneys’ to help prevent, detect earlier and treat kidney disease, in the hope of better outcomes and experiences for patients. All our work over the last three years has been developing resources and guidance to support everyone to think kidneys.
And now we are using the name for our public campaign – because that’s what we want people to do. We know that generally people don’t know much about their kidneys, much less spare a thought for how healthy they are. You can’t see them, you can’t feel them, they just carry on working until things go badly wrong, but we need to remember them and treat them well because they are vital for health and life. So our campaign is based on simple messages to provoke people into thinking about their kidneys and understanding them, and hopefully taking some action to learn about them. We hope many people support the campaign over the summer months and get the message out. Watch out for our Twitter activities over the summer and some really helpful support from some serious Tweeters. And we’d love to know how you are spreading the word so contact us and we’ll showcase what you’re doing locally.
As a lay person and manager, rather than a clinician, I know I’ll never fully understand the complexities of kidneys and the intricacies of how they work, but what I am sure of is that if our campaign, which we have been working towards for a while, helps save just one life then it will all be worth it, undeniably justified and a great success.