World Kidney Day with King’s Senior Renal Physiotherapist

10 March 2022 - To mark World Kidney Day (10 March), we meet Dr Ellen Castle, a Senior Renal Physiotherapist in the Renal Rehabilitation and Exercise team at King’s.

Dr Ellen Castle has been part of King’s since 2012, firstly as a physiotherapist, specialising in kidney disease care and now, working in our outpatient renal rehab team, providing exercise and physical activity interventions for people living with kidney disease.

Our renal rehab team care for patients living with chronic kidney disease. Dr Castle said: “Our team sees a range of people living with kidney disease. Some of the people we see may be receiving dialysis, others may have had a transplant, and some may be early on the kidney disease pathway.

“Following individual assessments, the treatments we provide include prescribing individualised exercise or physical activity plans. We may prescribe a home exercise programme, refer to a local gym, or we may link them in with our virtual physical activity and well-being platform for people living with kidney disease (Kidney Beam) depending on our client’s goals and needs.”

Dr Ellen shared the importance of marking World Kidney Day 2022 (10 March 2022): “One in nine people worldwide have kidney disease, and unfortunately people often do not develop symptoms until end-stage kidney disease.

“The day is an annual campaign to not only raise awareness of the importance of kidneys but to also share experiences and create awareness for people living with kidney disease.

Interesting fact: “We are one of the only centres in the UK that offer renal-specific outpatient rehab services.”