Just over a year after The Children’s Liver Disease Foundation made their first visit to Belfast, they are on their way back.

Last September a record number of children and family members went 10-pin bowling at the Odyssey Arena.  This year CLDF have booked Streetwise Circus to present a programme of circus skills.  It should be a very lively and entertaining few hours for everyone who comes along.

This all takes place on Saturday 1^st November – from 11. 30 a.m. to 2. 30 p.m. – at the Morton Community Centre in Belfast  (off the Lisburn Road)

As last year, CLDF staff will be available to chat to parents and children about how they are coping.

RVH LSG are delighted to be helping with the preparation and delivery of the event.  More details will be posted as the weeks go by.

In the meantime – if a child in your family has been in any way affected by liver disease, please put the date in your diary.

Final figures from Love Your Liver roadshow on May 20th:

Dr McDougal explains the Fibroscanner to Minister Poots

 

• Screened (using online health check on laptops): 112 people
• Scanned by FibroScan: 60 people
• Referred for LFTs or further action: 37 people (33%)

Thanks again to everyone who helped set up this very successful health promotion day!

The 2K Family Walk

Every year Gareth Hunter’s in-laws, the Walsh family, do a sponsored walk for charity.

A well- earned rest after 14 miles in the mountains

 This year they were joined by Gareth’s father and sister.  A total of 25 brave souls walked for 4 hours, approx 14 miles, in the Cooley Mountains.  At 77 years of age, Gareth’s father Bob led from the front for most of the way – until he took a wrong turn, and found himself 2 miles off route ! 

£ 2,000 was raised for the work of the RVH Liver Support Group. 

The cheque was handed over on the morning of 20^th May, at the Love Your Liver Campaign in Castlecourt, to LSG chair Donald Cairnduff. 

Huge thanks go to everyone involved for the strenuous fundraising and the strenuous hiking that went into gathering this magnificent total.

The photo on the left shows the cheque handover. From left is Bob, Gareth and Donald receiving the cheque on behalf of the RVH Liver Support Group.

Joyce Britt presents her cheque to the treasurer Tom McCready

Michael and Joyce Britt have been long standing supporters of our group and the picture on the left shows our treasurer Tom McCready reciving a cheque from Joyce at the AGM

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January is Love Your Liver month on the other side of the Irish Sea. In January of this year the British Liver Trust’s travelling pop-up clinic screened 800 people in 8 different locations in Great Britain. 21% of these, following a fibroscan, were referred to their GPs. 

It has been a couple of years now since Gordon Cave first suggested that we try to bring the roadshow to Northern Ireland.  From then on he has worked steadily to keep us focused on making this happen.  Which it did – on Tuesday of last week.   

On 20^th May the British Liver Trust ran their first Love Your Liver roadshow in Northern Ireland at CastleCourt Shopping Centre.  A screening area where members of the public could answer an online questionnaire was set up on the ground floor close to the Royal Avenue entrance.  The fibroscanning was done in an empty retail unit on the second floor.  Here those referred had an opportunity to talk to one of three consultants from the RVH who were present at different times of the day.

Members of the RVH Liver Support Group, alongside friends and family, acted as volunteers, handing out flyers, explaining the purpose of the road show to passers-by and chatting to people in the queues for screening and fibroscanning.  We were delighted that that Dr. Paul Darragh of the British Medical Association, Northern Ireland dropped by in the afternoon and that Health Minister Mr. Edwin Poots M.L.A. visited in the morning.  Both men took a very keen interest in the raodshow, chatting to a wide range of medical professionals, volunteers and members of the public.  The Minister was also given a clean bill of health after he very willingly sat through the screening process.

At the end of the day, 112 people had been screened, 60 had been fibroscanned and 37 had been referred for liver function tests or further action.  After 16 years as a charity working mainly in support of those dealing with liver disease, it was a privilege for the RVH Liver Support group to be working on a project aimed at preventing others from ever having to do so. 

We are indebted to many people, without whom it would not have been such a successful health promotion day:

·      –  to Andrew Langford, CEO of the British Liver Trust, for his direction on the day and his invaluable contribution  to all the pre-planning;

·      –   to Carol Hazell and Sandra Cooper-Keen of the British Liver Trust for conducting the screening so skilfully and so sensitively;

·       –   to Carolyn Adgey, RVH registrar, who did all the fibroscanning;

·     –  to Drs. McDougall, Cadden and Cash for giving of their time to speak discreetly to members of the public who had been fibroscanned;

·       –   to Binder Tohani and the management of CastleCourt for allowing us to stage the event and for calmly directing us through all the administration;

·       –    to Dave Pettard for photographs;

·       –   to Vincent Kearney for making sure everything was delivered and returned on time;

·       –   and to RVH LSG volunteers for their sensitive and interested engagement with everyone they dealt with..

All bar one of these volunteers knows about the trauma of liver disease, either as a patient or as a carer.  While we will never know the full impact of the Love Your Liver Campaign on the lives of those who visited the Belfast pop-up clinic, if only one person is spared what these volunteers and their families have gone through, the day will have been more than worthwhile.   

**** See thanks and photos in ‘From The Chairman’ section of this website ****

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The 16^th AGM of the RVH Liver Support Group was held in the Samuel Irwin Lecture Theatre on Thursday 10^th April.

Dr Roger McCorry addresses the meeting

Guest speaker for the evening was Dr. Roger McCorry, recently appointed consultant hepatologist at the RVH.Members, guests and friends met and chatted over light refreshments before the meeting which got underway at 7.30 p.m.  Initial business was the adoption of the minutes of the AGM for 2013 and of the Treasurer’s Report for 2103-14.

In his Chairman’s report, Donald Cairnduff reflected on a satisfying year which included:

·                a successful outreach event for children and parents at the Odyssey in September;

·     a successful outreach event for adults at the Seagoe Hotel in November,

·         two challenging and informative members’ meetings in October and February;

·         an outlay of £4, 800 on patient care;

·         an outlay of £17, 712 on hospital equipment

·          and continuous steady and sensitive work on patient care, which is by far the most important facet of the group’s work. 

He paid tribute to the many members and friends of the group whose efforts had raised £19, 325 for its work during the year.  He also offered his sympathies to all who had lost loved ones, including the friends and families of two recent committee members, Carina Matthews and Siobhan Gough.

The full report can be read by visiting the From the Chairman page on the website.

Dr. McDougall took charge of the meeting while the committee stood down.  The Committee for 2014-15 was then voted in: Gordon Cave (President); Donald Cairnduff (Chair); Kay Duffy (Founder); Sharon Millen (Vice Chair); Eileen Hearst (Secretary); Tom McCready (Treasurer); Jennifer Cairnduff: Seamus Cunningham; Rachel Quinney-Mee and Anya Toner.

Committee members Anya Toner, Sharon Millen and Donald Cairnduff (Chairman)

The meeting concluded with a fascinating presentation by Dr. Roger McCorry. After summarising his career to date, Roger discussed ‘operational tolerance’, where the liver graft keeps functioning  properly and the recipient’s immune system stays strong despite the absence of immune-suppressive drugs.  Current research, while recognising the challenges and risks of weaning patients off immune-suppression, estimates that operational tolerance may soon be possible in up to 40% of selected cases.  Meanwhile, stem cell therapy offers the potential of transforming liver fibrosis into a healthy functioning liver.   While never downplaying the difficulties, Roger’s presentation offered a vision of a future when life might be easier for many transplant recipients.  The lively question and answer session that followed showed that it had certainly caught the imagination of his audience.

L to R Sandra Hamilton, Ann McKee, Donald and Carol Watson. The three ladies are representing the Joe Watson Foundation.

Cheque presentation from the Charlie Beverland Foundation

Charlie Beverland was a well known local cricketer and rugby player and, once his playing days were over, for many years an Ulster Branch Rugby referee.  He sadly passed away in 2009 after a long struggle with liver cancer.  The Charlie Beverland Foundation was set up in his memory.

On the morning of 5th May, Belfast Marathon participants representing the Charlie Beverland Foundation met at La Mon Hotel in Castlereagh, ready for the tough challenges ahead and the prospect of raising significant funds for their chosen charities.

Sharon Millen receives a cheque from the Charlie Beverland Foundation

Before they left, they were joined by RVH Liver Support Group Vice-Chair Sharon Millen, who was looking forward to an altogether less strenuous day.  Sharon was proud on behalf of the Group to receive a cheque from the Foundation for £5,753.  This money was raised through a cycling event in the French Alps undertaken in July 2013 by friends of the Foundation, including ex-Irish rugby internationals Paddy Johns and Dennis McBride and ex-Irish Hockey internationals Jimmy Kirkwood and Billy McConnell.  They completed L’Etape de Tour, which is one of the more gruelling stages of the world’s premier cycle race, La Tour de France.

The RVH Liver Support Group is very grateful to the friends of the Foundation who helped raise this money and to Charlie’s daughter Megan who co-ordinated the fund raising and set up the cheque presentation on May Day morning.

As with all donations to the group, the money will be used judiciously in support of all who are dealing with liver disease – and their families and carers – throughout Northern Ireland. 

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At just after 3 p.m. yesterday, people in Belfast’s Great Victoria Street were stunned to see Banana Woman appear on the roof of the Europa Hotel.  She smiled and waved before abseiling down the wall.

She was the last in a long line of superheroes to make this descent.  Various Caped Crusaders and at least three Spidermen had preceded her – as well as a few ordinary members of the public whose inelegant progress down the wall didn’t have quite the same impact with spectators as Banana Woman’s.

Sharon and Donald representing RVH Liver Support Group

In real life Banana Woman is RVH Liver Support Group Vice-Chair Sharon Millen.  Alongside Chairman Donald Cairnduff, she had been roped into the Nothern Ireland Transplant Forum’s charity abseil, part of their year-long  ‘9 GOALS’ project.  Others abseilers included representatives of donor families, transplant recipients and their friends, as well as medical professionals.

The purpose of the day was threefold – to raise money for the Denise Carter Foundation, which funds projects in aid of organ donation;  to celebrate the new life that transplants deliver; and to honour real and generally unnoticed superheroes – the families who agree to the donations that restore life to very ill people.

Back on firm ground, Sharon and Donald were proud to receive medals from Leah Carter.   Leah’s mother Denise passed away shortly after giving birth to her. Her dad Steve set up the Foundation in Denise’s memory after her donated organs had saved or transformed five people’s lives.

Sharon Mileen and Donald Cairnduff receive their abseiling medals from a masked Leah Carter.

It was a privilege for both of them to represent the RVH Liver Support Group, many of whose members are transplant recipients, at such a memorable and public celebration of the gift of life.

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In October 2011 we had great pleasure announcing the appointment of our President Gordon Cave as a Director on the Board of Trustees of the British Liver Trust. This was a very great honour for Gordon personally and for the RVH Liver Support Group because it was his work within the group that earned him the respect to be chosen for this important role, and indeed for Northern Ireland to be represented at such a high level within a national organisation. Unfortunately, due to recent ill health and the travelling involved to meetings in London Gordon decided to resign from the Board in January this year.

During his time as a Trustee he contributed significantly to the work of the British Liver Trust particularly as a patient advocate where his passion and concern for the plight of those suffering from liver disease and their carers ensured that the patient voice was always heard at Board Meetings.

His most significant achievement was lobbying strongly to have Belfast included in the BLT Love Your Liver Campaign Programme and as a result the Road Show and Pop Up Clinic will be visiting Northern Ireland for the very first time and set up in the Castle Court Shopping Centre on Tuesday 20 May 2014

We are delighted that Gordon will be continuing his work with the RVHLSG.

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