CORONATION Street bosses have found themselves under fire from a leading kidney charity after they ‘ignored’ advice regarding Carla Connor’s current storyline.
Carla, played by Alison King, was admitted to hospital on the ITV soap opera earlier this month.
The character had previously undergone a kidney transplant in 2018 from her half-brother Aidan Connor, played by Shayne Ward, but was left devastated when she was informed that a recent sepsis battle had damaged her kidney.
In the following episodes, Carla has been left facing life with regular dialysis treatment as well as searching for a new donor to provide her with a kidney.
However, the portrayal of the storyline has seen a backlash from fans regarding how quickly Carla has been offered treatment at home with a leading kidney charity also coming on board to raise their concerns regarding the direction of the plot.
Kidney Care UK have now shared their fears over how the ITV soap is portraying the storyline and have begged the programme to be “clearer” on “how hard it is to live on dialysis”.
Speaking to the Mirror, the charity’s Policy Director, Fiona Loud, expressed her concerns and her advice on how the soap could amend its current plot as quickly as possible.
She told the publication: “[Coronation Street] could make it a little bit clearer how hard it is to live on dialysis and [if] you normally have to wait a very long time.
“In other words, [they should] try to play it in a way that shows how difficult it is to live on dialysis and highlight how long people have to wait.
“They could also signal-boost links to our website so if any [viewers] want to know what it’s like to live with kidney disease they can learn more.”
Kidney Care UK first began working with the soap during Carla’s first transplant storyline in 2018 but have now written to them directly to withdraw their support of the current on-screen plot.
Issuing a public statement, the charity said: “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.
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“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.”
The statement continued that members of the Kidney Care community had expressed their “upset” at the storyline last time around and how the charity had tried to advise Coronation Street to take more into consideration the second time around.
Kidney Care UK continued: “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 expedited 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.”
Issuing a final plea, they continued: “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.”
Hitting out at the soap following the revelations, one furious fan said: “@itvcorrie really shouldn’t do these storylines if they aren’t committed to portraying them accurately.
“And they definitely shouldn’t claim to have worked with charities for advice on storylines if they’re just going to ignore said advice!”
On the other hand, someone else pointed out: “I think it’s been done as well as they possibly can in a soap opera.. she can’t be in the hospital for two months people wouldn’t watch a storyline that plays out that long… it’s TV.”
