A group of runners who ran both the Tenby 10k in July and the Cardiff Half Marathon last week are absolutely overwhelmed to have raised well over £2,000 for Kidney Care Wales courtesy of the very generous sponsorship and support that they have received from the public.

The four runners ran in aid of the Kidney charity in support of friend and boyfriend Adam Hughes, of Tenby, who earlier this year was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure and who now has to receive daily dialysis whilst he awaits a kidney transplant.

Adam's girlfriend Sabrina Revell and friend Alan Townsend, of Penally, had previously ran the Tenby 10k in July and were joined in Cardiff by Steve Handicott, of Tenby, and his girlfriend Kathryn Hudson, originally of Waterlooville in Hampshire, and who now lives in Cardiff.

All runners completed the race in excellent time, with Sabrina being the first home in a time of 1 hour 46 minutes. It was an excellent sunny day in Cardiff with an astonishing 19,000-plus runners taking part in the run, including local 'Ironman', David Ayers, of Pentlepoir, who supported the runners and Adam by wearing the 'Kidney Care Wales' T-shirt for the run.

Following a number of medical tests, Adam has now been officially put on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, but unfortunately he is one of over 9,000 patients on the list which is growing daily, and the average current wait is three years. All involved in the above appeal would encourage everyone to join the Organ Donation list; this can be achieved in just a couple of minutes online at http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk">www.organdonation.nhs.uk or you can do so by phoning the freephone number 0300 123 23 23.

There is a need to greatly increase the number of people who are willing to consent to organ donation and whilst it is very welcome, they said, that the opt-out system was coming to Wales, that was not until 2015, and even then there was the need to change people's perception that organ donation was a good and natural thing to do.

The runners and Adam would like to sincerely thank all their supporters and sponsors, including the Welsh cake ladies of St. Johns Church, who boosted the fund by £200, all at Greenhill School, where Adam works as a teaching assistant, staff at Heywood Lane Infants School, members of Tenby and Saundersfoot Rotary Clubs, all down the harbour who gave very generously to John Handicott, all at Carew FC and, of course, all other family and friends who supported the appeal.

All runners are keen to continue supporting the Kidney Wales Foundation in 2014 and are already busy looking for races to compete in next year; additionally, if others wanted to join them that would be fantastic.