Summer Greetings from the Desk of the CEO
Summer Greetings from the Desk of the CEO
With summer fully upon us, I hope you’ve been able to enjoy the warmer weather and have some nice holidays to look forward to before the return of fall.
As we enter the second half of the year, I’d like to take a moment to update you on current and upcoming work at the Canadian Liver Foundation (CLF).
Making Liver Disease Information More Accessible
At the beginning of May, we presented our second virtual LIVERight Health Forum to respond to your most common liver disease questions on fatty liver disease, mental health, alcohol and the pandemic, and children and liver disease. Streaming live from Facebook – across five days and in four languages (English, French, Punjabi, and Chinese) – these sessions received over 2,000 views from Canadians across the country. If you couldn’t attend or would like to re-watch a session, visit our YouTube channel.
In line with our strategic direction of reaching more people with improved support programs and services, we’re looking forward to the launch of the Resource Hub on liver.ca this fall. This digital library will centralize an array of liver disease resources including webinars, factsheets, blog posts and brochures, helping Canadians better navigate their liver health and increase their knowledge of liver disease. Users will be able to filter by topic, resource type, file type and/or year to customize their experience.
Advocating for Liver Disease Prevention
On May 11, alongside Action Hepatitis Canada, CanHepC, CanHepB, and the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver, our team was in Ottawa to mark the inaugural Canadian Viral Hepatitis Elimination Day. We called on the government to set targets and support critical policy changes to meet Canada’s commitment to the World Health Organization to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. We were pleased to be joined by a member of the liver disease community, who shared their lived experience with hepatitis C.
Coming Together for Our Biggest National Fundraiser
At the end of this month, we’ll come together virtually to celebrate this year’s Stroll for Liver. I invite you to stroll your own way and join us on August 28 to raise awareness and vital funds to propel life-changing liver disease research and support forward. Stroll is also a wonderful way to honour those who have been touched by the disease. With just over $84,662 of our $160,000 goal raised to date, we are well on our way to making this year’s Stroll the best one yet, but we can’t do it without your help! Go to liver.ca/stroll-for-liver to register.
Creating More Opportunities for Health Promotion, Education and Awareness
This past spring, the British Columbia (BC)/Yukon Region launched the Liver Beware Project, offering testing through Fibroscan to identify fatty liver disease and liver scarring or cirrhosis. To date, 1,576 appointments have been booked, and as of August 17, 1,180 Greater Vancouver residents have been tested.
In May, for the first time in the CLF’s history, our communications team attended and live tweeted from the Canadian Liver Meeting to open the conference’s digital doors to you. We also sat down with featured speakers and liver specialists to learn more about their current research. Find these interviews via our National Facebook page.
This fall, our Living with Liver Disease program will pick up again with the September 27 session on Children and Liver Disease. Tune in virtually to consult the experts, connect with patient families and learn about their lived experiences, and find peer support from fellow Canadians affected by liver disease. To view the recordings of previous Living with Liver Disease sessions, visit our website.
Improve Fundraising Options for Donors Across Canada
We are improving the flexibility of giving options available to our donors so that you can support Canadians living with liver disease in a way that best suits you. We have updated our website with new information on different ways to give, including corporate giving, planned gifts, and gifts of stocks or securities. We are also thrilled to announce that we are now accepting donations of cryptocurrency through the Canadian-based crypto payment platform, EukaPay.
We are also happy to support workplaces that are interested in coming together to improve the lives of those affected by liver disease. Workplace giving is a wonderful way to engage in teambuilding while creating a positive social impact. It also provides an opportunity for your team to learn more about liver disease by booking an accompanying healthy liver presentation for staff. Please ask us about our new Workplace Giving Toolkit and workplace education programs and we’d be happy to get you started
Our virtual doors are always open, and I encourage your feedback and suggestions on how we can make a greater impact on the lives of the 1 in 4 Canadians who may be affected by liver disease.
As always, the work that we do would not be possible without you, our liver community! Thank you for following along and for your continued support as we work to improve the lives of all Canadians affected by liver disease. Enjoy the rest of your summer and talk soon!
Sincerely,
Jennifer Nebesky
President and CEO
Canadian Liver Foundation