In February, we hosted an awareness event, Time to DeLiver, in Parliament to encourage the government to pledge better support for early diagnosis and the fight against liver disease nationally. The event was supported by Norgine.
Why Time to DeLiver?
Liver disease is a silent killer: most people with the condition don’t know they have it until the disease is at an advanced stage. It is the biggest cause of death for those aged between 35-49 years old and is a major health challenge across every age group.
The three main risk factors are excessive alcohol consumption, being overweight and contracting viral hepatitis. A focus on early diagnosis is crucial to overcome this public health crisis; it’s Time to DeLiver.
What happened at the event
The event on 25th February 2020 consisted of two sessions.
In the morning, more than 25 Members of Parliament (MPs) met a specialist clinician and had a free FibroScan, a liver scan that measures the stiffness of the liver, to provide an insight into their liver health. As we find at our Love Your Liver roadshows, some MPs had higher than normal readings and we provided them with a letter to take to their GP.
In the afternoon, we invited parliamentarians to hear from liver disease patients, expert clinicians and representatives from the British Liver Trust. This provided them with a better insight into the issues facing those who are diagnosed with the disease as well as the need to improve diagnosis, treatment and care.
What will happen now
The day was a huge success and we were delighted with the wide range of support we received from the parliamentarians who attended the event. All were keen to find out what they can do to curb the liver disease epidemic in the UK and help save lives in their constituency.
Following the event, each MP who attended received a snapshot of liver disease in their local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), dates of our Love Your Liver roadshow 2020 and a link to our statistics report: The alarming impact of liver disease in the UK
We are asking them to speak to their local CCG about what they are doing to combat liver disease in the area and find out if there is a liver pathway for their constituents. Many CCGs do not currently have an establish primary care liver pathway, which can be effective way of ensuring those who have an abnormal liver function test or fall into an ‘at-risk’ category are assessed.
Many thanks to all the MPs below who came along to the event to find out more about this important issue.
| Name | Constituency |
| Bill Wiggin | North Herefordshire |
| Stephen McPartland | Stevenage |
| Wayne David | Caerphilly |
| Hilary Benn | Leeds Central |
| David Amess | Southend West |
| Jane Hunt | Loughborough |
| Gerald Jones | Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney |
| Jeff Smith | Manchester, Withington |
| Caroline Nokes | Romsey and Southampton North |
| Tony Lloyd | Rochdale |
| Paul Girvan | South Antrim |
| Tracey Crouch | Chatham and Aylesford |
| Steve Brine | Winchester |
| Royston Smith | Southampton, Itchen |
| Elliot Colburn | Carshalton and Wallington |
| David Davies | Monmouth |
| Neale Hanvey | Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath |
| Jim Shannon | Strangford |
| Kate Hollern | Blackburn |
| Robert Largan | High Peak |
| Rachael Maskell | York Central |
| Christina Rees | Neath |
| Julian Sturdy | York Outer |
| Alison Thewliss | Glasgow Central |
| John Whittingdale | Maldon |
| Virendra Sharma | Ealing, Southall |
| Mike Freer | Finchley and Golders Green |
| Rupa Huq | Ealing Central and Acton |
| Tonia Antoniazzi | Gower |
| Alun Cairns | Vale of Glamorgan |
| Lilian Greenwood | Nottingham South |
| Mike Hill | Hartlepool |
| Diana Johnson | Kingston upon Hull North |
| Stephen Kinnock | Aberavon |
| Jonathan Lord | Woking |
| Margaret Ferrier | Rutherglen and Hamilton West |
| Sharon Hodgson | Washington and Sunderland West |
