This study aims to explore the experience of renal patients undergoing dialysis treatment focusing on beliefs about their illness, prescribed treatment and the challenge of adherence. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the accounts of seven haemodialysis patients. Patients have a range of beliefs about their illness and their treatment consistent with the self-regulatory model of illness, that is, identity, cause, consequences, timeline and cure. Patients sometimes consciously did not act in accordance to advice when they considered an aspect of treatment less important or less easy to adhere to. Psychological factors like beliefs might play a role in non-adherence behaviour.