‘We hope we can work together to help tell the true story’

A charity has called for Coronation Street bosses to rethink a major storyline it claims is causing ‘distress’. In recent episodes, viewers have watched Carla Connor’s health battle after sepsis caused damaged to her kidney.

It’s the second time the character has had issues with the organ. In 2018, she received a donation from her half-brother Aidan Connor, played by Shayne Ward.

The depiction of what it is like living with the condition has now been questioned. Concerns have been raised about how quickly Carla, played by Alison King, was able to get a transplant and how she and her family have gone about finding a new donor.

Kidney Care UK has now issued a statement saying it wants to sit down with Corris bosses to speak about its concerns, insisting it’s not too late to ‘put things right’.

Policy director Fiona Loud said the charity worked with the soap in 2018, but said the recent timeline was ‘not realistic’. She said the charity, this time around, consulted Coronation Street bosses on types of dialysis and accurate timelines for treatment, but claim its advice was seemingly not taken into consideration.

“Soap storylines are a really important opportunity to raise awareness of issues, conditions and illnesses – especially ones that there is less awareness of, such as kidney disease,” Ms Loud said.

“This is why we’ve been happy to speak to Coronation Street both times they have run Carla’s kidney disease storyline.

“In the UK, 8 out of 10 people waiting for a transplant are waiting for a kidney and by presenting kidney disease and kidney transplantation storylines on prime time TV there is a real opportunity to have an impact on the transplant waiting list, which is at a ten year high.

“We advised the writers of Coronation Street in 2018 and took them to a transplant unit so they could learn how amazing organ donation can be. We understand that soaps do have to reduce timelines in order to tell stories, but in the UK the wait for a kidney transplant is currently 2-3 years, and for some it can be much longer.

“It upset our community to see Carla’s transplant happen so quickly in 2018 and so when they approached us again in the summer of 2024 we provided advice as to different types of dialysis and the timelines involved between being told you would need dialysis treatment and when you may start this at home.

“We made it clear that the expediated timeline in 2018 was not realistic, and urged them to really take care with the storytelling this time to repair some of this distress in the kidney community.

“However, this advice was not used and we are concerned that there are opportunities to make a difference in the awareness of kidney disease that could be missed, and may have a detrimental effect on the public understanding of just how serious kidney disease really is.

“We have written to the writers again to explain our concerns. It is not too late to put this right, and we hope we can work together to help tell the true story of living with kidney disease.”

ITV has been approached for comment.