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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The RVH Liver Unit has recently been strengthened with the arrival of Dr. Roger McCorry.

Roger, a past pupil of Ballyclare High School, trained at Queen’s and during his 3^rd year elective worked in the LITU at King’s alongside Professor Nigel Heaton.

Spells as a Junior House Officer in the Mater Hospital and as a Senior House Officer in various hospitals in Northern Ireland led to his taking up a gastroenterology training post in Manchester from 2007 – 12.  During this time he also undertook a year’s hepatology training, firstly in the Liver Unit at Nottingham and then in the transplant unit at Cambridge.

This led to spells as a locum consultant and gastroenterologist in the Royal Preston Hospital and as a consultant hepatologist in Wythenshawe.

Our new consultant Dr Roger McCorry

The chance to return home and work in the RVH came ‘out of the blue’ and he had no hesitation in applying for it.  So far he has thoroughly enjoyed being back in Northern Ireland.  He is coping well with the pressures of work – and of fatherhood, following the arrival of Oliver in late February, a brother for 3 year old Richard.

Roger set up a nurse-led fibroscan service in Preston and would be keen to set up a similar service in Belfast.  Inspired by his experiences in King’s and Cambridge, he is particularly interested in how liver transplantation will develop in the years ahead and in the likely impact of stem cell research.  He will be speaking about these issues as our guest at the 2014 AGM.

We wish Roger every success and happiness in his new post.

 

 

 

 

Meeting with First and Deputy First Ministers

On the invitation of Mrs. Jo-Anne Dobson, MLA, I attended a meeting at Stormont on Tuesday 25^th March, at which the First and Deputy First Ministers heard arguments in favour of a change to the law on organ donation.

Mrs. Dobson is currently working on a draft of her Private Member’s Bill to change the law from an ‘opt-in’ system to a ‘soft opt-out system’.  Such a change reflects the views of 85% of the RVH Liver Support Group’s membership from the poll taken in December 2011.

I was fortunate to be given an opportunity of presenting some of the arguments – the fact that countries with some form of opt-out system have around 30 deceased donors per million of population while the UK has only 19; and the prospect of a more open culture for discussing organ donation ensuring that the wishes of the deceased are better known.  Others emphasised that donation must always be preceded by family consent and that a change in the law must go hand-in-hand with improved infrastructure and thorough public education.

l – r : Martin McGuiness (DFM), Jo-Anne Dobson (MLA), Peter Robinson (FM), Donald Cairnduff, Billy Thompson (Northern Ireland Kidney Research), Mark Dobson (kidney recipient).

I was also fortunate to be able to say a little about the work of the RVH Liver Support Group and about the experience of liver patients – whose mean waiting time for a transplant is 175 days; who have to travel to England for surgery; and who, when they get there, will be treated by transplant teams who are now having to use ‘extended criteria’ organs, since the need for organs outstrips their current availability.

It was a privilege on the day to be able to pass on something of the experience of liver transplant patients to our two most prominent politicians.

Donald Cairnduff

Lucia at opening of London Aquatics Centre

The Olympic Swimming Pool for the London Games in 2012 has been transformed into a major public facility,

London Aquatics Centre with Tom Daley

the London Aquatics Centre.

30 members of the British Transplant Sport swimming Team, aged 12 – 65, took part in the official opening event.

Amongst them was Lucia Quinney-Mee, aged 15 from Ballycastle.  Lucia, twice a liver recipient, was  the top junior competitor at the 2013 British Transplant Games.

On Tuesday May 20 the British Liver Trust’s Love Your liver Campaign will come to Northern Ireland for the first time. It will be set up at Castlecourt Shopping Centre on the morning of May 20 and will run through the morning and the afternoon.

The Love Your Liver Campaign in Manchester

The Trust has been running the campaign in Great Britain for several years. Last year was its most successful ever.  In all their team screened 806 people in 8 different venues, with queues in some places forming before 9 a.m. in the morning.  Of the 594 of these people who were fibroscanned, 124 were referred for further tests as a result of the scan showing signs of some liver damage.  Just as important, those who weren’t referred received the outcomes of their screening and information on changes that could improve their health and reduce the risk of liver disease.  As one of the trustees remarked, ‘Getting this early warning not only helps the individual but may save the NHS millions.’

The RVH Liver Support Group, in assisting the planning of the campaign, is grateful for the support of Mr. Andrew Langford, CEO of the British liver Trust,  the RVH consultants and the management of Castlecourt.  Please come along on the day and encourage friends and family to do so as well.

The February members’ meeting took place in the Samuel Irwin lecture theatre on February 20. The guest speakers were clinical psychologists Dr Melanie Wolfenden and Dr Chris Tennyson. Melanie deals with adults and Chris works with children. After an introduction by the chairman prepared questions were asked by Donald to our guests. When they gave their answers members had the opportunity to ask their own questions.

The thought that they had given to the questions, plus the clarity and detail with which they answered them, helped generate some very worthwhile discussion.  Both speakers emphasised the positive impact of strong mental attitudes in healing without ever downplaying the difficulties that patients encounter, particularly transplanted patients.  The blend of theory, research evidence and real life stories in their responses did much to ensure a very interesting  and encouraging evening. The extent of the audience participation was testament to that.