The Trust is based in Ringwood, Hampshire and has a small but dedicated team tackling a serious and growing public health problem affecting around two million people in the UK.
We have dedicated resources for people with liver disease like our website, helpline and publications. Our aim is to reach out to as many people as possible by providing information and support, and lobbying for the services people with liver disease need. We have strong contacts with professionals in the field of hepatology that enable us to provide the most up to date information.
The British Liver Trust is a registered charity (registered number 298858) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales company number 2227706.
Our website is receiving more than one million visitors a year. It keeps us in touch with people all over the country and makes an important contribution to the support we are able to give and the ease and speed with which information can be provided. This new website, launched in 2007, will further increase the effectiveness of this communication.
Click here to find out more about our website.
The Trust’s Helpline (0800 652 7330) is an important first point of telephone contact for many people, whether suffering from liver disease themselves or for those concerned about relatives, friends or colleagues. We have a Patient Enquiry Officer who can answer general medical enquiries and can point you in the right direction for further information.
Click here to find out more about our Helpline.
We send out many hundreds of thousands of our
patient leaflets each year. These publications provide valuable information on a range of liver diseases.
They explain how the liver works, how illness occurs, how it is prevented and detail both available and potential options for treatment. Our leaflets also provide a useful list of further support organisations and resources to help you to manage your condition. We are constantly expanding these publications across a range of languages.
Our advice is intended to complement that given by healthcare professionals. We are now publishing guides for health professionals themselves as part of our drive to improve the general awareness of liver disease in the wider healthcare community.
All patient information is either written or reviewed by leading medical experts. All draft leaflets are read by people with personal experience of liver disease for their feedback. In this way our publication process ensures that the advice we provide to you is up to date, accurate and explained in language that is easy to understand.
Click here to Order Resources.
We also aim to fund relevant research that improves the lives of people with liver disease. This has included raising funds to enable projects and studies related to first and foremost alcohol-related liver disease, but also liver cancer and viral hepatitis.
To help achieve our mission, the Trust works closely with others involved in liver disease including patients, medical professionals, other voluntary sector bodies, government departments and agencies and suppliers of products used in the treatment of liver disease.
Our involvement with professional medical bodies includes acting as the secretariat for the British Liver Nurses Forum (BLNF), the British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) and Alcohol Liver Action (ALA).
Please click here to find out more about our health professionals.
We campaign on specific liver diseases independently and in partnership with others. Our work with the media on specific issues is designed to further raise awareness of liver disease, provide accurate information and draw attention to the services needed to support those with liver problems.
Please click here to view our recent campaigns.
We continue to campaign to improve the provision of care for people living with liver disease, ensuring whether they live in the town or country, treatment and support services are easily accessible and available on an equal basis.
A priority for the charity is to ensure services for liver disease are specifically commissioned in the NHS throughout the UK. Increasingly, we are looking towards parliamentary lobbying to help us achieve recognition of the urgent requirements of liver patients and to encourage those with influence to speak on our behalf. Health inequality in liver disease is a significant issue. This is related both to perceptions about 'fault' which can unfairly stigmatise some people with liver diseases and also the fact that certain groups with problems related to wider societal problems are not always the most vocal about their problems, for example IDU's and people who drink excessively.
Our need for local volunteers to help us carry out our work promptly and efficiently is always present!
Please click here to find out the ways you can contact us.