A TEAM of life-saving nurses is getting set to jump start a fundraising appeal for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and Kidney Kids.

Kirsty Scott, Vicki Harkins, Karen Maclennan, Zoe Dickson, Nicola MacDonald and Sara Banks will don their Santa costumes for the charity’s annual Santa Bungee Jump – organised with the Catherine McEwan Foundation - at the city’s Riverside Museum next month.

The event will get fundraising underway for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity’s renal appeal - run in partnership with Kidney Kids - which will raise money for children with kidney failure at Glasgow’s Royal hospital for Children.

Clinical Research Fellow on the renal unit, Vicki, 31, told how they were inspired to fundraise after seeing what the youngsters and their families on their ward go through.

She said: “The children on our ward don’t look ill, but they are extremely ill.

"With kidney disease, people just aren’t aware of the impact that it actually has on children and their families, and that’s why we do this job.

“Even at special times of year like Christmas, it’s a completely different experience for our families from the ward. Christmas day isn’t the same, our kids can’t have their Christmas dinner. It’s the small things that everybody takes for granted that the kids can’t enjoy.

“Working on the renal unit and seeing everything the children and their families go through, we just wanted to do something different to give back to them, so we got a team from the ward together to do the Santa Bungee.”

The appeal aims to raise £500,000 to support the renal unit at the children’s hospital in Glasgow, which is a centre of excellence for children from across Scotland with kidney failure.

Money raised will ensure children with kidney failure are treated by specialised nurses in their own dedicated ward, pay for more psychology support for children and families, and will also support the home dialysis service to allow more children to be treated at home instead of in hospital.

Kirsten Sinclair, Chief Operating Officer at Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “Our renal appeal looks to build on and enhance services for children battling kidney failure in Scotland.

“This life-long, life-limiting condition cannot be cured.

"Even if a child has a kidney transplant, they will always have the condition which will limit their quality of life.

“That is why it is vitally important that we reach our target and find ways to fund the best possible care, support and services for young patients and their families at Scotland’s largest children’s hospital.

"Their kidneys have failed, but we won’t fail them.

"For us, failure is not an option.”

For more information on the appeal, see www.GlasgowChildrensHospitalCharity.org/renal-appeal or email info@glasgowchildrenshospitalcharity.org or call 0141 212 8750.