Since COVID-19 dominated the news, especially in healthcare, for much of 2020, it would be easy to forget that another lethal disease, Aortic Dissection, remained a national patient safety issue in the UK & Ireland, killing more people each year than road traffic accidents.

On September 19th 2020 – Global Aortic Dissection Awareness Day – the UK & Ireland joined with the worldwide AD patient movement to once again raise awareness of this issue and of the urgent need to improve diagnosis, treatment and outcomes for Aortic Dissection patients.

We are delighted that the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, agrees with us that not enough is being done about Aortic Dissection and that he chose in 2019 to release a short video about this for AD Awareness Day UK in 2019, which you can watch here.  Matt’s powerful words remained as true in September 2020 as they were a year before, in part because COVID-19 temporarily took away the ability of Government and the NHS to focus on the national issue of Aortic Dissection.

On 19th September 2020, we again called for a return to the urgent task of saving the lives of Aortic Dissection patients in the UK & Ireland, many of whom are currently dying unnecessarily, This is because they do not receive prompt diagnosis and the right specialist care. We have all seen during the COVID pandemic what the NHS can do, in very short order, when it focuses its resources on a life-threatening disease and frankly, we want some of that!

AD Awareness Day UK 2020 was, of necessity, a virtual celebration. We hope that you find the online content that we put together interesting, inspiring and a catalyst for change.

Pre-COVID-19, we had planned to hold our flagship national event for 2020 at the Bristol Cricket Ground, where our hosts would have been the wonderful NHS professionals of the Bristol Aortic Service. We awarded the honour of hosting AD Awareness Day UK 2020 to them because of their pioneering work improving the diagnosis and treatment of Aortic Dissection, which is an example to the nation. Bristol deserves this award in 2021, so we have rolled-it forward and hope that you will join us for AD Awareness Day UK in Bristol on Thursday 16th September 2021. Save the date now!

In the meantime, please celebrate every AD Awareness Day with us and use these online resources to help us raise awareness and change the Aortic Dissection landscape for the better.

Gareth Owens & Catherine Fowler
Chair & past Vice-Chair
Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland

The Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland 2020 annual In Memoriam of those we lost to Aortic Dissection, with Gareth Owens