“Have the conversation – say YES to Organ Donation”
Punchestown Charity Race - Saturday 3rd May 2025
€2 MILLION EURO RAISED FROM PUNCHESTOWN CHARITY RACE
The 34th running of the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund charity
race takes place on Saturday 3rd of May at the Punchestown National
Hunt racing festival in Co. Kildare. The charity race is the annual curtain
closer to 5 days of top class horse racing and crowds of over 100,000
are expected to attend this year’s event.
It is expected that the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund will exceed
the €2 Million Euro mark of funds raised, through this special and unique
race.
The charity race was started by Kilcullen man James Nolan back in 1990
to raise funds for kidney projects as well as to raise Organ Donor
awareness in Ireland.
James had been sick for most of the early years in
his life prior to going on to Dialysis in 1986. After getting very ill in 1987
his family were approached to consider one member of his family
donating a kidney. On the 25th of July 1987 his sister Catherine Doyle
gave the greatest gift that any human being can give to another human
being when Catherine kindly donated James one of her kidneys and
gave him a second chance in life.
Once James returned to full health, he
then started the charity race and participated in the first 13 runnings of
the event and he was aboard Nero’s Dancer in 2002 to win the race at
odds of 50/1.
During the past 3 years the PKRF supported the following projects:
We sponsored and helped the IKA establish a Pilot Peer Support
program for all Kidney patients in Ireland. This program 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
program for all Dialysis & 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 "STATEMAN" Art Therapy programs
for Dialysis Patients in Tallaght, Waterford & Wexford Dialysis Units
We continued to support Sports Programs for Dialysis & Transplant
Patients.
Organised a trip to Lourdes for one Dialysis patient and a carer.
We sponsored a new “Kidney App” for Kidney patients in association
with Dr Donal Sexton at St. James’s Hospital.
The name of the race captures another aspect of what this unique
event is all about - “Have the conversation – say YES to Organ Donation”
James asks families to have the conversation about Organ Donation
and leave no one in doubt as to what one’s wished are in the event of
an accident. It is much easier for everyone if this conversation is had
at home with your family. The PKRF use the charity race to try to
create Organ Donor Awareness in Ireland.
