Love Your Liver campaign ‘calls for universal liver health screening’

The British Liver Trust's 'Love Your Liver' campaign calls on the government to support a national liver health prevention scheme, as it claims such a programme could save millions of lives.

As part of the campaign, the charity will screen MPs for liver disease at the House of Commons. It feels this particular condition is a "ticking time bomb the government cannot afford to ignore".

According to the trust, the number of deaths in the UK related to liver disease has increased by 400 per cent in the last four decades, with the issue being exacerbated by the ongoing obesity epidemic, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets and inactivity.

Luciana Berger, a Labour MP and shadow minister for public health, said she has seen the devastating effects the disease can have on people's lives and is fully backing the campaign.

Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, said that to avoid being struck with the disease, people should have two to three alcohol-free days per week, exercise regularly and eat healthily.

“We are all affected differently and the symptoms are almost undetectable in many cases until it is too late,” he added.