Kidney Cancer UK was formed in January 2000 by two kidney cancer patients, Keith Taylor and Dick Williams. We are a registered private limited company (company number 3918876) and a registered charity (number 1089119).

Our charity became the first kidney cancer support group in the UK and whilst some smaller support groups now exist, we are pleased to report that Kidney Cancer UK is still seen as the leading kidney cancer support group in the UK.

Our financial resources depend entirely on membership subscriptions, voluntary donations and fundraising and if you feel able to support our aims by helping us to make a real difference to the lives of kidney cancer patients and carers in the UK, please see the ‘Community’ and ‘Events and Fundraising’ sections of our website.

Over the years, we have seen our charity and its reputation go from strength to strength and this, we feel, has been as a result of our reliability, integrity and professionalism. We have helped many thousands of kidney cancer patients along their kidney cancer journey and we will continue to help thousands more who are sadly diagnosed each year.

We produce an extremely informative and highly regarded Kidney Cancer Fact Pack, publish magazines and newsletters to our members, hold an annual conference, provide an Internet discussion forum and regularly update our website with essential information for the benefit of kidney cancer patients, their carers, medical professionals and scientific researchers.

We are also regularly contacted by kidney cancer healthcare professionals who request copies of our literature on their patients’ behalf and we regularly contribute to new websites and projects which involve educating and raising awareness amongst healthcare professionals.

There are encouraging signs in the UK that cancer patients and their carers are being given more opportunity to have their say in the policy decisions that affect them locally and nationally and in this respect, we are pleased to be developing a strong advocacy role by campaigning for new drugs and treatments to be made available on the National Health Service and making representation to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). For further details please see the ‘What We Do’ section of this website.

The guiding principle of our charity is that the organisation should be run by and for those with direct experience of kidney cancer. However, in May 2005, we appointed our first employee, Julie Oldfield, as part-time Administrator and Secretary to the Board of Trustees. This appointment has been fundamental in improving the efficiency of our charity and it has proved to be the correct decision for the long-term future of KCUK.

The current Board of Trustees who all serve in a voluntary capacity are:

• Mr. Paul Taylor (Chairperson)
• Professor Tim Eisen
• Dr. Pat Hanlon
• Miss Joan Thompson
• Mrs Jackie Lowe

We are delighted to have as our Honorary Patron Mr. Nicholas Owen (Television and News Presenter) who has held that position since 2003.

Nicholas was himself diagnosed with kidney cancer in July 2002 and we are very grateful to him for all of the support that he has given to our charity over the years and still very kindly, continues to do so.

For further information about the KCUK team, please see the ‘Who We Are – Meet the Team’ section of this website.