Bradford Garden Centre lends its support to kidney appeal

The team at a Bradford garden centre is supporting a local child’s appeal for a new kidney.

Bradford teenager, Uqbah Mohammed, has stage five chronic kidney disease and has to undergo dialysis three times a week. Her aunt, Naila Khan, approached the team at Grass Hoppers at Tong Garden Centre as a potential location for the BBC to film an appeal to find a donor.

“We requested for the filming to take place at Grass Hoppers due to this being Uqbah’s favourite play area. With Uqbah’s special needs, we wanted her to be filmed in a place where she would be happy and comfortable; therefore, we couldn’t think of a better location,” said Mrs Khan.

Yorkshire Garden Centres’ Group Head of Play, Caroline Ellis said: “We were delighted to welcome Uqbar and her family to Grass Hoppers to launch the appeal for a potentially life-saving kidney donor. We were able to create a special session for the family to have the play area to themselves. We wish them every success with their search for a donor.”

Potential donors would need to be blood group O and ideally come from a South Asian background, but people of all ethnicities are invited to contact leedskidneyappeal@nhs.net to find out more.

“Thank you and all your wonderful team at Grass Hoppers for their immense support before, on the day and now. Uqbah and our whole family is greatly touched by all the kindness!,” concluded Mrs Khan.

Tong Garden Centre occupies a 19-acre site in Tong village. It is one of Yorkshire’s biggest independent garden centres with 11,600m² of retail space and parking for up to 700 cars. It is part of the Yorkshire Garden Centres (YGC) group that also owns Tingley Garden Centre and the former Stephen H Smith’s Garden Centres in Otley and Harden, Bingley.