SIR,

The 32nd running of the “Have the Conversation – Say YES to Organ Donation” Punchestown Charity Race took place on Saturday, 29 April. People stayed on in their thousands to cheer on all the jockeys, which managed to create a wonderful atmosphere both before and after the race in the parade ring, providing a fitting finale to the Punchestown Festival.

This year was quite simply another phenomenal year for the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund. The jockeys managed to raise €94,158 on the day of the event, which is a new record for the charity race. This means that the cumulative total raised to date is €1,796,835, which is absolutely incredible.

During the past two years we managed to support the following projects:

  • We sponsored and helped the Irish Kidney Association establish a pilot peer support programme for all kidney patients in Ireland. This programme offers vital supports to patients and their families who are dealing with all the various issues and concerns that is all part of being a dialysis or transplant patient.
  • We established the James Tracy/PKRF/Kidney Beam Exercise Programme for all dialysis and transplant patients, which will enable all patients to access free, online, live and on-demand exercise classes, specifically tailored to all different levels of fitness and specifically for kidney patients.
  • We continued our research into polycystic kidney disease, in partnership with the Irish Nephrology Society, under the guidance of the Irish Research Council.
  • We continued our support for our art therapy programmes for dialysis patients in Tallaght and Waterford dialysis units. We will expand this to Wexford in 2024.
  • We continued to support sports programmes for dialysis and transplant patients.

    • So many people deserve huge thanks for making the charity race such an unbelievable success.

    Great credit is due to all the team at Punchestown who make our raceday so special, as well as all the staff at the IHRB who so generously volunteer their services on the day, and also the staff at HRI and RACE.

    We are very grateful to all the owners and the trainers who have given continued support to our race every year, for the past 32 years.

    We would like to acknowledge the various forms of media, whose coverage of our race in whatever way, is hugely important both to our charity and to all those people awaiting life-saving transplants; you all give hope to so many others by raising the profile of Organ Donor Awareness in Ireland.

    On behalf of the charity, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund in any small way at all, as this has helped us to support various projects, which in turn improves the quality of life for those patients living with kidney illness and also helps us to create positive organ donor awareness in Ireland.

    Yours etc,

    James Nolan

    Chairman,

    Punchestown Kidney Research Fund

    CHY 16613