Hi Folks,
I have just taken part in an action to help raise awareness and understanding about hepatitis C in Parliament.
Please take action and contact your MP too!
Please click on the link below to write to your MP now:
http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=1667&ea.campaign.id=7408
My MP is Mr Edward Leigh, MP for Gainsborough and this campaign is being coordinated by the Hep C Trust.
My Letter reads as follows:
Dear Mr Leigh,
I am writing to raise the issue of hepatitis C, a virus that has had a huge impact on my life.
As you may be aware, hepatitis C is a growing problem in the UK. It is an infectious blood-borne virus that mainly affects the liver and is undiagnosed in the majority of the 250,000 to 466,000 people infected across the UK. It can cause cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer and death yet is both preventable and treatable.
I am Hepatitis C sufferer and it is thought I contracted the virus over 25 years ago.
Unfortunately for me, by the time I was diagnosed with HCV, my liver was so badly damaged that my only option was to have a full Liver Transplant.
I received my new liver on 28th January 2010 at St James Hospital, Leeds which gave me a new lease of life but I still have the Hepatitis C virus.
I am aware that new drugs will soon be available to combat this deadly virus however these are not yet available on the NHS and nor have they been tested on post-liver transplant patients.
I am about to embark on the currently available, standard Ribavirin/Peg Interferon treatment which will take 48 weeks to complete which does not guarantee a 'cure' and has severe side effects. I am also told I will not qualify for DLA whilst on this treatment which I find cruel and unjust.
All of this suffering could have been avoided, as well as the expense of the Liver Transplant operation, the extremely expensive drugs I must now take for the rest of my life and the treatment I am about to start IF I HAD BEEN DIAGNOSED EARLY.
The Department of Health is currently developing a National Liver Strategy and I hope this will address hepatitis C and its devastating consequences by drastically increasing diagnosis rates, improving support, treatment and care for patients, and preventing further infections.
The All-Party Parliamentary Hepatology Group takes a lead in Parliament in raising the profile of liver disease, in particular hepatitis C. I would be extremely pleased if you could join the Group so you can be kept up to date with relevant debates, reports and meetings in Westminster. The Hepatitis C Trust runs the secretariat for the Group so please email jane.allen@hepctrust.org.uk or call 020 7089 6220 to join. This is very important to me and I do hope you will be able to support me and other hepatitis C patients in this way.
I would also be grateful if you could consider supporting Early Day Motion 119, ‘The Hepatitis C Trust’s Get Tested Campaign’ which calls for great public and professional awareness of the virus so that more people are diagnosed.
I urge you as my MP to join the All-Party Parliamentary Hepatology Group and support our Early Day Motion, ‘The Hepatitis C Trust’s Get Tested Campaign’.
I would appreciate if you could write back to me to let me know your thoughts on my request.
Thank you for your time and your consideration of this vital but often overlooked public health issue.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Quill
Please could I ask anyone reading this in the UK to join this campaign and write to their MP by clicking on this link: http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=1667&ea.campaign.id=7408
Take care everyone... Ian
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