We are delighted to report that the story book introduced by CLDF to explain the process of liver transplant to children, has won the Information for Children award at the 2018 Patient Information Awards which are run by the British Medical Association.
Joe’s Liver Transplant Story, was written by Saskie Dorman as she sat by the bedside of her five year old son Joe, while he recovered from his liver transplant in 2016.
When Saskie, who is a doctor, was preparing Joe for his transplant, she realised that there were no books specifically to explain the process to children, so decided to write a story based on her own family’s experience. She told our families officer about it during a visit to the ward and we were determined to make her story happen. We are proud to have done so and very grateful to the nurses, play therapists, surgeons, doctors and psychologists, as well as other parents of children with liver disease who provided input to ensure its accuracy.
The book was finally launched in January this year and is now being used as part of the paeidatric transplant preparation process at Birmingham, Leeds and Kings. Yesterday (September 25) a team from CLDF attended the annual Patient Information Awards in London, an annual event run by the British Medical Association (BMA) to encourage the production of accessible, well-designed and clinically balanced patient information, where Joe’s Liver Transplant Story was announced as the winner in the Information for Children Cateogry.
Judges described the book as “…..a unique resource. It is vitally important in explaining a life-changing massive operation to young children” and added “it deals with a sensitive topic in a way that is highly accessible to its target audience.”
Alison Taylor, Chief Executive of Children’s Liver Disease Foundation commented: “A key area of our work is providing information on these very rare conditions to families who are affected. We know that the hospitals who use ‘Joe’s Liver Transplant Story’ find it extremely y useful and now to win such a prestigious award is a great accolade and a real endorsement of the quality of the information we provide.”
Full details of the 2018 BMA Patient Information Awards are here CLICK HERE
