The Royal Victoria Hospital Liver Support Group

The Royal Victoria Hospital Liver Support Group was founded in 1998 by Kay Duffy.  Kay's husband had a successful transplant, and having recognised a lack of peer support for liver patients in the Province, she wanted to pass on what she had learned through this experience and help others suffering from liver disease, including those who needed to travel to England for assessments and liver transplants.

The charity is run exclusively by volunteers in NI who themselves are liver patients or who are family members of liver patients.

We provide confidential emotional support and practical non-medical advice for adults, adolescents and children who are coping with liver conditions, and their carers.  The Liver Support Group has been set up to complement and extend the support already provided by clinicians to those challenged with liver conditions. 

A member of the Liver Support Group describes the invaluable support received:

“On my journey with liver disease I came across the RVH Liver Support Group when attending outpatient appointments at the Royal Hospital. There was always a friendly face at the Helpdesk who had time to just say hello or answer questions.

After being listed on the transplant list was when the group really came into its own. There was always someone to talk to and answer questions about things like accommodation, flights, and also potential financial help.

The calls to my family during and after transplant were very reassuring and were greatly appreciated as there was a familiar voice on the other end of the phone. As a family we are indebted to the Liver Support Group for their continued support both in a practical sense alongside emotional support.”

Our committee

Our committee understands the importance of involving our members. This allows us to grow as a group and help share a sense of not being on our own, as we as individuals and families journey through liver associated illness. We look to understand and empathise without prejudice, with those at all stages of health and readily share our experiences of the health journeys many of us have already travelled.

Our partners in the promotion of organ donation include the Public Health Agency and all the major Organ Donation Charities. We work actively throughout the year with initiatives helping to promote organ donation particularly with the co-ordinated multi-channel campaigns spearheaded by the PHA.  
As we have insufficient resources within the Group's committee, we rely solely on personal donations and fundraising events organised by friends of the Group to provide the funding required to meet our care and support objectives for those in need.

Contact details

To find out more about us and our work, to support us or to get involved, please follow us on: