Peers come together for conference in Birmingham
To mark World Hepatitis Day, we hosted a conference in Birmingham for our peer volunteers.
Our peer volunteer programme is essential to our work on the ground and the conference celebrated the hard work that goes into finding, testing and supporting people onto treatment across the UK.
195 volunteers, staff members and NHS colleagues attended the event. It was a great opportunity to network and reflect upon just how far we’ve come on the road to elimination.
Attendees heard from two panels of peers about their experience of volunteering as well as from Mark Gillyon-Powell, Head of Programme for Hepatitis C Elimination at NHS England.
In the afternoon, our CEO, Rachel Halford, chaired a World Hepatitis Alliance Webinar from the venue. The seminar saw participants from across the globe join together to discuss the role of lived experiences in hepatitis elimination.
The Hep C Trust holds global competitions in prisons to mark WHD
To mark World Hepatitis Day, our prison team launched three competitions in prisons in the UK, USA and across Africa to raise awareness of hepatitis C.
The competitions included: creative writing, arts and crafts and fitness.
The Arts and Crafts entries were particularly creative and we received dozens of entries made from all sorts of material. Ultimately, the winning piece was Larry the Liver, an entry from New Mexico. Larry was made of wet toilet paper which had been moulded and dried before being painted.
HMP Cardiff won the fitness competition, with participants recording over 279,000 minutes of activity in the month building up to WHD.
After a few months of promotions and awareness raising building up to the day, we held a global celebration online. We are very grateful to our overseas colleagues for making this happen despite our different time zones.
UK politicians lend their support to WHD
Over on social media, a number of leading politicians from across the devolved nations shared messages of support for this year’s awareness day.
Andrew Gwynne MP, UK Minister for Public Health and Prevention, said: “We are committed to eliminating Hepatitis C.
“From screening to NHS England’s at-home testing service we’ve made strides in combatting this virus which can go undetected for years.”
News from the infected blood inquiry
In May, the final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry was launched.
The report sets out a catalogue of failures by MPs, civil servants, clinicians, the NHS and successive Governments over almost fifty years. Sir Brian Langstaff, chair of the Inquiry, received a standing ovation from attendees at the launch. He opened: “This disaster was not an accident”.
The Inquiry found that much of the harm caused through in Infected Blood Scandal could have been prevented, and the majority of infections could and should have been avoided.
We are expecting the publication of the Government’s response to the report and its recommendations by 24 August. You can find out more about the Infected Blood inquiry on our website.