INTRODUCTION

SAKA: An introduction

SAKA was formed in 1976 to help kidney patients and their families cope with kidney failure and to help fund research into kidney disease. The patients it helps are treated by the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, either at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield or at one of the satellite dialysis units in Chesterfield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster.
SAKA supports research into kidney disease carried out at the Sheffield Kidney Institute (SKI), within the Northern General Hospital.
Everyone who works and raises money for SAKA does so voluntarily, consequently SAKA is able to give an extremely high percentage of its income to help patients and support research.
SAKA is a registered charity, number 506386, and is a founder member of the National Kidney Federation (NKF).

SAKA: What it does

SAKA helps patients and their families by:

• Providing limited amounts of financial support to members.
• Providing subsidised holidays for members at caravan sites at Filey and Skegness.
• Providing taxi payments for holiday dialysis treatments at any location (within funding limits).
• Making a contribution towards travelling expenses limited to one relative while visiting a SAKA member who is an inpatient for longer than one week at the Northern General Hospital renal wards.
• Supporting research at the Sheffield Kidney Institute (SKI).
• Helping to fund medical equipment for use in the Northern General Hospital's kidney wards, satellite units and in patients homes across the region.
• Taking up patient issues through our representative on the hospital's clinical and management team.
• Improving the environments of the dialysis units - which are effectively the patients living rooms for three long periods every week.
• Providing vital information to patients, which may affect their treatment, and keeping them informed about renal protocols and national developments through the quarterly SAKA Update newsletter.
• Talking over problems with members.
• Arranging social events.
• Representing the views of local patients at national level through our National Kidney Federation (NKF) membership.
  
  

SAKA: Organisation

The main SAKA committee has overall responsibility for the running of the organisation in its entirety. This committee is elected each year at the Annual General Meeting held in September, where upon each member of the committee becomes a trustee of the organisation. Selected trustees can be found on the contacts page.

City Branch (serving Sheffield area members) is currently the main fundraising arm for SAKA and organises collections and events.
Informal meetings are usually held on the last Monday in the month (except December) and are held in the Board Room, Clock Tower Building, Northern General Hospital at 7.30pm.
If you would like to come along, then please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Bassetlaw Branch (serving Rotherham, North Notts, Dinnington/Aston area members) is currently in the process of being reformed - we need new members and a new meeting place suitable for most members to attend.
If you think you can help organise meetings for the Bassetlaw Branch, then please don't hesitate to get in touch.