Students raise awareness for Rare Disease Day

On Thursday 28th February, students from the School of Biomedical Sciences and Physiology in the Faculty of Science and Engineering will be raising money and awareness for Rare Disease Day at City Campus.

Rare Disease Day is the international awareness-raising campaign for rare diseases.  The aim of the day is to inform the general public and decision makers about the impact of rare diseases in patients' lives in order to improve knowledge, encourage research and address the needs of people living with rare diseases.

This year's event will be centred around raising awareness of Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease (ARPKD) in collaboration with the University's Biomedical Society. ARPKD is a rare disease that has variable manifestation and affects children from as early as conception - a rare, genetically inherited condition found in children and young adults and is a common cause of parental death.  There is no pharmacological treatment for this disease and the patients only option is to undergro kidney dialysis and subsequently have a kidney and/or liver transplant.

A stand will be set up in Rosalind Franklin Building selling cup cakes and people will be able to make their own t-shirts and enter a competition from 10.00 am. There will also be facepainting.

There will be a public lecture on Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease in MC001 from 11.00 am until 12.00 midday 

Between 12.00 and 12.30 pm there will be an opportunity to visit the labs and see kidney sections under a microscope

Visitors can also take part in a kidney shaped walk from 12.30 pm and from 1.30 pm until 3.00 pm there will be a badminton/tennis session in the WLV Gym.

Dr Evi Goggolidou, who leads the ARPKD research team at the University of Wolverhampton, said:  "As ARPKD is a rare disease, it's important to organise days like this to inform the public about rare diseases and get their support in finding treatments through research.

"All staff and students are encouraged and welcome to come along to the events that the students have organised, to show their support and help us to raise money and awareness for our research."