Marion Campton was one of thousands unaware they have kidney disease

Mrs Campton's GP asked her to undergo a routine blood test for something else, but when the results came back, the kidney issue was revealed.

Renal dietitian Jodie Ridley said many people had kidney disease, but did not show any symptoms.

"Up to 90 per cent of kidney function can be lost without someone showing any symptoms," Ms Ridley said.

"By that time, you can already be looking at dialysis."

Mrs Campton was diagnosed in 2000.

"If I hadn't had that test, I would not have known. There's not a lot of symptoms," the 75-year-old said.

Mrs Campton currently controls her condition with medication, although she may one day require dialysis.

"You are mindful of your diet, you watch your salt intake," she said.

"You have to know your limitations."

Mrs Campton said she is aware of the risk of infections and likes to stay active.

Ms Ridley said 20 per cent of people with high blood pressure will go on to develop kidney disease.

"One in three Australians are actually at risk of kidney disease without knowing it," she said.

"It's very simple to get a kidney health check. You just pop into your GP. It's a simple blood test and a urine test and getting your blood pressure checked.

"The leading courses of a lot of our clients ending up on dialysis is diabetes or blood pressure."

Ms Ridley said there were a lot of lifestyle factors that could be changed to reduce the risk of kidney disease or slow the progression of renal failure.

"There is a lot of potential to slow that progress before a patient reaches the stage of needing dialysis.

"One of the big things is staying physically active and doing exercise every day, keeping an eye on our weight is good too.

"Even a 10 per cent weight loss can have positive effects on our blood glucose control and blood pressure control, and then I guess from the food side of things, it's about the amount of salt in our diet and trying to reduce the amount of salt we are eating.

"Seventy per cent of that salt comes from processed food. It's not what we add at the table."

To mark Kidney Week, the Murrumbidgee Local Health Service is promoting early awareness of the risk factors:

Every day, an estimated 65 Australians die from kidney-related diseases.