Alton-based charity Kidney Care UK, which supports kidney patients, has raised £434,069 through its London Marathon team in 2025.

The charity was backed by a team of 122 runners, including 16 based in Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire.

Jasmine Williams, fundraising manager at Kidney Care UK, said: “We’re so grateful for our team of 122 runners who completed the London Marathon for us in 2025.

“It’s the highest amount we’ve ever raised through this famous event and the largest team who have ever taken part for the charity. For a locally-based charity to raise almost half a million pounds, and to compete with some of the much larger and higher profile charities, is a huge achievement. We’d love to hear from any local runners who would be keen to be part of our team of Kidney Warriors in 2026.”

The London Marathon organisers have just revealed which runners have been successful in the ballot for next year’s race following their biggest number of applications yet, with more than a million people applying to take part.

Anyone who has received a ballot place is invited to consider joining the Kidney Care UK team taking on this iconic event in 2026. For more details email [email protected]

Kidney Care UK is celebrating its golden anniversary in 2025, having been founded 50 years ago by local mum Elizabeth Ward, whose son ‘Timbo’ had kidney disease.

Elizabeth saw that there was not enough support for families affected by the condition so she set up the British Kidney Patient Association in 1975 at her home in Oakhanger. The charity’s headquarters later moved into Alton town centre and it has been based at its current offices in St Mary’s Close for 15 years.

The charity renamed itself Kidney Care UK in 2017 but it continues to provide practical, emotional and financial support to thousands of people with chronic kidney disease in Hampshire and across the UK.

Chronic kidney disease is a lifelong condition with no cure. The kidneys filter a person’s blood 40 times per day and keep their other organs working, but if they stop working properly then a person may need dialysis or a kidney transplant. The kidney transplant waiting list is the longest it has been in more than a decade and dialysis units are running out of space.

As many as one in ten people have the condition but around a million people are not aware they have it because it is possible to lose up to 90 per cent of kidney function without realising.

The charity launched its first national awareness campaign last year - the Bloody Amazing Kidneys campaign - and posters featured across the UK, including in Alton and the local area.

In June 2025 this campaign won a global award. The campaign was presented at Europe’s largest kidney conference, in Vienna, and at the UK’s leading kidney conference in Bournemouth earlier this month.

To find out more about the charity, including how to get involved, visit www.kidneycareuk.org