Patients & charities an integral part of the 1st Edinburgh Aortic Summit
Aortic patients and their patient charities were an integral part of the inaugural Edinburgh Aortic Summit, held at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 11-13th June 2025. The high level of patient engagement was unusual for a surgical conference and led to a very successful event.
The organiser of the Summit, Mr. Orwa Falah, Consultant Vascular Surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, was a guest at the national patient charity's Aortic Dissection Awareness Day UK in the city last September. He kindly invited Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland, the THINK AORTA campaign and our friends at The Marfan Foundation to be an integral part of the first Edinburgh Aortic Summit.
Mr. Falah, who is also the National Lead for the Scottish Thoracoabdominal Aortic Aneurysm Service, said:
"From the outset, I wanted patients to be an integral part of the Edinburgh Aortic Summit."
Seven Aortic Dissection survivors attended the Summit over the two days, including two who had also sadly lost another family member to Aortic Dissection. Ria O'Hanlon and Gareth Owens were members of Faculty and gave very impactful talks from their lived experience of Aortic Dissection, followed by a fascinating Q&A with the audience about how we can improve care in Aortic disease. Mr. Owens' presentation, titled "THINK AORTA: How patient advocacy is improving care in Thoracic Aortic Disease" and his call for clinicians and patient organisations to work together to: "over the next 20 years, turn Aortic Dissection from a cardiovascular catastrophe into a preventable disease" could not have been more appropriate.
Away from the sessions, many delegates visited the patient charity's exhibition stand to meet the team and learn more about their life-saving global THINK AORTA campaign.
Edinburgh Aortic Dissection patients Sam & Sandra at the charity's stand.
Patients also had the opportunity to browse the exhibition and see for the first time the products and technologies that are used to repair their aortas. Mrs Mary Boon visited one stand and for the first time saw and held the Dacron graft and mechanical valve that were used to treat her when she suffered an acute Type A Aortic Dissection.
Mary explained:
"The guys manning the stand, who work for the company that supplies these items, had never heard an aortic valve in operation in a living person. For those who don’t know, I make a ticking noise. So, I told them to come and stand near me to hear it. Their faces were priceless. They asked did I hear the click. I said not really, but I feel a thud, which you can feel if you place a hand at the top of my sternum. So I invited each of them to feel the thud by placing a hand on my chest! That was one of life’s unforgettable moments. I was utterly amazed holding this piece of engineering, knowing I have the exact same one inside me."
Mary Boon holds the device that saved her life
The Chair of Aortic Dissection Awareness UK and Ireland, Mrs. Anne Cotton, said:
"It was a privilege for the charity's team to be here in Edinburgh among so many eminent surgeons and other healthcare professionals who devote themselves to saving the lives of Aortic patients like us. We are very grateful to Orwa and the organising committee for the invitation. We hope to be back next year."
We were also delighted to be joined by our friends from The Marfan Foundation, in the person of Eileen Novins, Chief Global & Business Development Director, who spoke about the expanding work of the Foundation around the world and their support for and work with the patient-led THINK AORTA campaign.
