Children's Liver Disease Foundation

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Children's Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF) is an UK charity dedicated to fighting childhood liver disease. CLDF was founded in 1980 by the parents of a little boy named Michael McGough, who died before be could receive a liver transplant. The name was later changed to Children’s Liver Disease Foundation. There is no equivalent organisation anywhere else in the world.

Today the charity works in three main areas, support of families and young people affected by liver disease, funding pioneering medical and social research into all aspects of childhood liver disease and education, providing educational services to the general public and the medical profession. CLDF’s chief executive, Catherine Arkley, is an authority on paediatric liver disease and the charity works closely with the three UK specialist paediatric liver centres; Birmingham Children’s Hospital, King’s College Hospital, London and St James’s University Hospital, Leeds.

CLDF provides support to thousands of families and young people affected by childhood liver disease including an ‘on-call’ telephone and email service and face to face meetings with parents and young people at hospitals and clinics.

The charity has also developed a wide range of literature for families, young people, and healthcare professionals. CLDF’s literature series includes a medical series, with leaflets on the main liver diseases affecting children (biliary astresia, alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, autoimmune hepatitis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, Wilson's disease etc.) CLDF has also produced a nutrition series, a support series for families and information written especially for children and young people. CLDF also provides the paediatric liver transplant units with a series of leaflets on transplantation to accompany the paediatric liver transplant programme.

CLDF works to raise awareness of childhood liver disease amongst the general public and to help highlight the key facts about childhood liver disease:

[edit] Key facts about paediatric liver disease

At least two children are diagnosed with a liver disease every day in the UK.
More Children in the UK are currently diagnosed with a liver disease than childhood leukaemia.
Most childhood liver diseases are life threatening; all mean a lifetime of care.
There are over 100 different liver diseases that can affect babies, children or young people.
For most childhood liver diseases the cause is unknown.
Liver disease has no cure.

[edit] Yellow Alert campaign

CLDF’s prolonged jaundice awareness campaign, Yellow Alert aims to promote the early identification and appropriate referral of babies with prolonged jaundice – a sign of possible liver disease. As it is vital that liver disease is identified and treated as early as possible, this is a vital campaign.