A CHARITY concert has been organised to help raise much-needed funds for a life-saving unit.

Skipton General Hospital's satellite dialysis unit operates six days a week and provides treatment for patients who would otherwise face a lengthy journey to Leeds three times a week.

Each patient has different reasons for attending the unit, but without the treatment it offers each would die.

To make life a little easier for its patients, a special fundraising evening of Gilbert and Sullivan music will be held on Friday May 6.

Dialysis is a way of removing unwanted products and water from the body, which is usually done by the kidneys.

However, if for some reason the kidneys fail or are damaged artificial dialysis is necessary. Without dialysis, the amounts of waste products in the blood would rise to dangerous levels.

Allan Akers, of Threshfield, said he had been using the unit for two years and could not stress enough its importance.

"Without such essential treatment the patient would not survive," he said.

During the treatment, which can last between three and four hours, needles are inserted into a blood vessel (normally in the arm) and blood is then filtered through a machine. It is returned to the bloodstream through another needle.

The patient must keep the arm absolutely still during the entire length of the session which means activities to alleviate boredom and stress are severely limited.

Through fundraising, the unit has been able to provide flat-screen televisions, DVDs, radios and taped books.

Another patient, Chris Downing, of Haworth, explained that she had been using the unit for 15 months and had found it much easier travelling to Skipton rather than to Leeds.

"It is much easier and much nicer because it is a smaller unit and the nurses are that much friendlier and everybody knows everybody else," she said.

Sister Jacqui Galloway explained that the unit covered a large geographical area from Ingleton to Otley.

The unit opened in the early 1990s, houses nine stations and has the capacity to take up to 36 patients between Monday and Saturday, with two shifts a day.

All proceeds from fundraising go towards providing extras like televisions and curtains for the patients and specialist books for the staff. The money is also used to take patients out on trips or to buy Christmas presents.

Next month's concert is sponsored by Skipton Building Society and will be held at Cracoe Village Hall, starting at 7.30pm. Halifax Gilbert and Sullivan Society will provide the entertainment.

Tickets are priced £5 and are available from Grassington Medical Centre, Helen Midgley's shop in Grassington, Margaret Byrne in Hebden, Jack White in Hetton and Time and Tune in Skipton.