Six Year Old Beats Liver Disease

I just read a great success story of a young boy in the UK who was diagnosed with was diagnosed with the liver disease Biliary Atresia Type III. The child, named Ben, was just 4 years old when he underwent a liver transplant.

After receiving a new liver, tests were done on the original with the results coming back as positive for cancerous cells in the removed organ. Now at age 6, he is both strong and healthy - a real testament to the countless operations he as already gone through in his short life.

Ben's Mom said "He is my hero. He just gets on with it. He is always very matter of fact about it." She added "We're trying to raise awareness even with GPs, (General Practitioners) who won't necessarily know about the disease. It's an extremely specialist subject."

From the story which can be accessed here, these are some startling bullet points on liver disease:

• 2 children are diagnosed with a liver disease each day.
• Currently more children have a liver disease than childhood leukemia.
• There are more than 100 forms of liver disease and most are life-threatening.
• In most cases doctors do not know the cause or have a cure.