Fernwood woman to run the TCS London Marathon to raise funds for Kidney Care UK

As her family faces a roller coaster of kidney failure and a rare disease, a Fernwood woman is preparing to take on a 26.2-mile challenge.

Kate Hyland, 46, will be running her first London Marathon on April 27, 2025, to raise funds for Kidney Care UK, to support people like her husband Lee, who has end-stage kidney disease.

Lee has had kidney issues since his early teens, to the point where he needed to have dialysis at the hospital, until he had the chance to have a kidney transplant on April 21, 2009.

Coincidentally, he went into hospital on the same day as Kate, who was pregnant and overdue by three days, was giving birth to their son Harvey, now 15.

Sadly, Lee’s kidney failed in early 2022 and he had to go back onto dialysis four times a week, from home this time, and has been back on the transplant list ever since.

Kate wanted to donate her kidney to Lee and started running to get fitter, beginning with the Couch to 5K programme, since then, she has completed over 50 park runs and a half marathon and joined the Newark Striders.

Unfortunately, Kate received the ‘disappointing’ news that she had a rare form of chronic kidney disease — Thin Basement Membrane Syndrome — which stopped her from being a donor.

Kate’s disease doesn’t require treatment, however, she can’t donate her kidney as it would require extra effort from one kidney and could lead to potential kidney problems in the future. She will have annual doctor visits to check on her condition.

She said: “I felt disappointed really, I wanted to do that for him so it has been a bit of a roller coaster.

“You are told ‘yes’ the whole time, but then all of a sudden there is this problem and this problem.

“It was a bit of a roller coaster of emotions, but I think not donating my kidney anymore was the right decision for us.”

Despite the news, Kate decided to support her husband and people like him by raising funds for Kidney Care UK, the UK’s leading kidney charity and is aiming to raise £2,500 by running the London Marathon.

Kate described the impact that Lee’s condition has had on their children, Harvey, and his sister Amelie, 13: “This life impacts them also, as we navigate this journey together as a family.

“A lot of people don’t really understand what kidney dialysis and kidney failure involves, when you tell people that Lee has kidney failure, one person even said to us “so you just take a tablet for that then?”

“No, he has to go on a machine for five hours at a time, four times a week. He still works full time, comes home from work and gets straight on the machine, it is a massive commitment and it is a really big chunk out of your life.

“We must do this to keep him alive while he awaits a lifesaving kidney transplant from the transplant list.

“It is difficult to go on holiday because if you do go, you have to come off the transplant list, you have to make sure you can have dialysis wherever it is that you are going because you can’t just stop a session, you have to keep going.”

“I am really looking forward to the challenge and more so because I have a vested interest in the charity, it's kind of spurring me on even more.

“I have got a long process of very long runs and training before we get to April next year.”