By Kerri Stevenson
Students on the Swimming and Triathlon team at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) gathered at the university’s Food Village for a 24-hour cycle to raise money for Kidney Research UK.
The annual event, which took place from 11am on Tuesday last week, aims to raise as much money as possible both online and on campus while raising awareness of kidney disease.
Joe Roland, a second year Criminal Investigation and Policing Studies student, said: “I decided to take part in this event today as the charity is very close to home for me as I have recently lost a friend to kidney disease.
“This is my first time taking part in a major charity event for the university and I will definitely be taking part again next year, as it is for such a good cause, which is beneficial to people who have had similar experiences to me.”
The event, which has been done in aid of the mental health charity MIND for the past few years, had raised a total of £480 in online donations by the Wednesday, which has surpassed the team’s original target of £250 even before the donations in buckets on campus are counted.
This is the first year in which the team will be working with Kidney Research UK, which is Britain’s leading charity funding research into the causes, treatment and prevention of kidney disease while relying almost entirely on donations from the public.
Emily Walton, 21, a third year Fine Art student, said: “Although the most important thing is raising money for the charity, the event really helped to promote the Swimming and Triathlon Society and it’s always a positive to have good publicity from doing something like this.
“This has been our most successful year by far as a total of about 10 to 15 students were involved and we have raised far more money than we expected to.
“It has been such a fun experience, as I was able to do this with my friends on the team and it was great to have them next to me for support.”
William Preston, 21, a third year History student, said: “I really enjoyed taking part in this as it really helped with team building and creating a stronger support network within the team, as well as giving our team more recognition.
“The event is very beneficial to a lot of people as it not only raises money, it also helps to raise awareness of the important research the charity does.
“I have taken part in this event for the past two years and I will make sure that I do it again next year, hopefully we can carry on building on our success.”
For more information about Kidney Research UK or if you would like to make a donation, please email kidneyhealth@kidneyresearchuk.org, visit the website at www.kidneyresearchuk.org or call 0300 303 1100.
