Ten years of Aortic Dissection Awareness Day UK
The 10th annual Aortic Dissection Awareness Day UK, organised by national patient charity Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland, took place in September. Hosting of our flagship national event this year was awarded to the University of Leicester, in recognition of their research into screening families to prevent Aortic Dissection.
The idea for having a worldwide Aortic Dissection Awareness Day on the 19th September each year came from Swedish Aortic Dissection survivor Timo Söderlund. In 2016, he encouraged AD survivors around the world to hold an event to mark the day and raise awareness of the condition. In the UK, Dan Burgess and Brenda Grunwell took up the challenge and brought a small group of survivors together in London for the first time. Ten years on, we review the impressive development and impact of Aortic Dissection Awareness Day UK; the people and organisations who have hosted it; and what has been achieved as a result:
2016: The Royal Brompton Hospital
Host: Professor John Pepper
Sponsor: Heart Research UK
This was the first time that a group of Aortic Dissection survivors - twelve in total - had got together in the UK. It was the place where our founder members, including Dan Burgess, Brenda Grunwell, Gareth Owens and Anne Cotton, first met and where their vision for Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland was formed. Ten years on, this vision has become the national patient charity for Aortic Dissection, with almost 2,000 members; trusted publications and support services for patients and families; an active NIHR-funded research programme; and a global THINK AORTA campaign that is saving lives around the world.
2017: Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital
Host: Professor Mark Field & the Liverpool Aortic Team
Sponsor: Heart Research UK
The rapid growth of AD Awareness UK & Ireland meant that 70 patients and relatives joined us in Liverpool on 19th September 2017. The LHCH Aortic Team shared their expertise with us and gave us insights into how they operate. Stefan Paudler, a Liverpool Type A dissection patient, shared his story. From discussions with Aortic surgeon Miss Debbie Harrington and our partner Heart Research UK on this day, a decision was taken to turn the patient-led THINK AORTA initiative into a national poster campaign that would see the life-saving message reach every Emergency Department in the UK & Ireland.
2018: Barts Health NHS Trust
Hosts: Mr. Paul Flora, Mr. Sandip Sarkar, Prof. Rakesh Uppal, Mr. John Yap
Sponsors: Terumo Aortic; LeMaitre
Continued rapid growth saw 150 patients, relatives and clinicians join us in the magnificent surroundings of the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London on 19th September 2018. Our Founding Chair, Gareth Owens, told his story of being given a second chance at life in Barts. Throughout the day, he introduced members of the Barts Aortic Multi-Disciplinary Team to talk about the role of their specialty in providing effective Aortic Dissection care. Responding to the patient demand for more specialist Aortic centres like Barts and access to this standard of care across the UK, a representative of NHS England spoke about their work to produce a national service specification for Thoracic Aortic Disease. This initiative encountered resistance to change from a small number of clinicians in some areas and ultimately it became the optional NHSE Acute Aortic Dissection Toolkit, which is now being rolled-out across all English regions with the patient charity's support.
2019: The University of Leicester
Host: Professor Gavin Murphy
Sponsor: Terumo Aortic
In recognition of their significant contribution to Aortic Dissection research, hosting of AD Awareness Day 2019 was awarded to the University of Leicester. Over 160 delegates joined us for a day focused on developing what eventually became the NIHR-funded DECIDE-TAD research programme, co-led by the patient charity and Prof. Gavin Murphy, BHF Chair of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Leicester. This exciting 5-year national research programme is focused on developing and evaluating a Decision Support Tool to improve family screening in non-syndromic Thoracic Aortic Disease - a key step in preventing aortic dissections in future.
2020: Special COVID-19 Virtual Event
Host: Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland
Bringing hundreds of vulnerable Aortic Dissection survivors together during a pandemic didn't seem like the best idea, so with the help of our clinician friends at Bristol, Barts and Leicester, on 19th September 2020 we delivered an online event. This enabled us to reach an audience of over 500 people on the day. Dr. Riccardo Abbasciano shared an update on the DECIDE-TAD research programme we had started in Leicester the previous year. It was also the first time we were able to share news of our charity collaboration with Barts' researchers Prof. Julie Sanders and Prof. Aung Oo on the Cardiac COVID Study, which investigated the experience of UK cardiac surgery patients during the pandemic.
2021: The Bristol Aortic Service
Host: Mr. Cha Rajakaruna, Mr. Marcus Brooks, Dr. Emma Redfern, Prof. Mark Callaway
Sponsor: Terumo Aortic
A wide range of clinicians attended our first post-pandemic event in Bristol on 19th September 2021, when the hosting was awarded to the Bristol Aortic Service. Our theme for the day was THINK AORTA. Mrs. Haleema Saadia shared her moving account of experiencing an Aortic Dissection during pregnancy. The event highlighted the transformation in Aortic Dissection diagnosis and outcomes that has been achieved in Bristol under the leadership of Dr. Emma Redfern and Prof. Mark Callaway and the expertise of the Bristol Aortic Service. Dr. Stephen Drage from the Health Services Safety Investigation Body presented their investigation and reports: 'Delayed Recognition of Acute Aortic Dissection' and 'The Transfer of Critically-Ill Adults'. As a result, The Royal College of Emergency Medicine and the Royal College of Radiologists published joint best practice guidance 'Diagnosing Thoracic Aortic Dissection in the Emergency Department' and the national patient charity began working with the University of Bristol on the TRAVERSING Study, which delivered a clinical consensus on the safe transfer of acute Aortic Dissection patients.
2022: University College London
Hosts: Prof. Vanessa Diaz and Prof. Stavroula Balabani
Sponsor: Terumo Aortic
In 2022 we had to quickly rearrange AD Awareness Day UK to the end of October, when the funeral of the late HM Queen Elizabeth II fell on 19th September. Fortunately our hosts at University College London and staff at our venue BMA House - HQ of the British Medical Association - were very accommodating. The hall was packed for an interactive day focused on 'Engineering the Future of Aortic Surgery'. Our good friend Professor Aung Oo from Barts gave an excellent keynote talk on 'The Future of Aortic Surgery'. Prof. Rob Sayers called for more awareness of and work on Type B Aortic Dissection, which is sometimes considered the 'poor relation' to Type A dissection. Delegates worked with UCL researchers building sophisticated computer simulations of diseased aortas to better understand and predict haemodynamic changes when Aortic devices are used to repair them, particularly endovascular devices in Type B dissection. The patient and clinician input gained from the focus groups provided valuable context and direction for this research. Several research papers were subsequently published.
2023: Royal Papworth Hospital
Host: Dr. Stephen Webb, Dr. Bobby Agrawal, Mr. Shakil Farid, Mr. Ravi da Silva
Sponsor: Terumo Aortic
In 2023 we awarded hosting of AD Awareness Day UK to another leading UK specialist Aortic centre - Royal Papworth Hospital. Following the theme of "Aortic Dissection: From Treatment to Home" we learned from experts about the many and varied disciplines involved in caring for patients along the Aortic Dissection pathway, as well as from patients and relatives themselves sharing their lived experience. Our host Dr. Stephen Webb is a former President of the Intensive Care Society, so we had some interesting discussions about AD patients in ICU and realised, perhaps for the first time, that the vast majority experience post-operative ICU Delirium. After AD Awareness Day the charity continued to be involved in Aortic education in Cambridge. We are delighted to see the ongoing focus by Royal Papworth on sharing best practice in Aortic care through educational events. We are grateful to the team and especially Mr. Shakil Farid, Education Co-Lead at the UK Aortic Society, for these efforts.
2024: The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Host: Prof. Tim Graham
Sponsor: Terumo Aortic
Many Aortic surgeons around the world are members of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) and the College has supported a number of global Aortic surgery education events. It was appropriate then for the charity to award the hosting of AD Awareness Day UK 2024, our first national event in Scotland, to RCSEd. Leading specialists from four continents, including our keynote speaker, Prof. Joseph Bavaria from the USA, joined us to address a packed event in Edinburgh on the theme of "Aortic Surgery Around the World". This event was the first time that THINK AORTA country leaders from the UK, USA, Canada, Europe, Brazil and Malaysia were able to meet in person to share their successes and strategies. We also welcomed two new strategic partners to the THINK AORTA family: The Marfan Foundation (USA) and the Aortic Association (EU). After the event, we were delighted to see the inaugural Edinburgh Aortic Summit in 2025 take shape under the leadership of Vascular surgeon Mr. Orwa Falah, including the patient charity as an integrated part of what we expect will become an annual event.
2025: The University of Leicester
Host: Professor Gavin Murphy
Sponsor: Terumo Aortic
With the DECIDE-TAD research programme fully-funded by NIHR for 5 years and making excellent progress, we made the unprecedented decision to award the hosting of AD Awareness Day UK for a second time to the University of Leicester. On 18th September 2025 we celebrated the 10th annual Aortic Dissection Awareness Day UK with a crowd of patients, relatives and clinicians in Leicester, engaging them directly in reviewing the emerging Decision Support Tool. The charity has a dedicated Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) team for the DECIDE-TAD research programme, with a breadth and depth of engagement and co-production that extends well beyond traditional involvement models and is an exemplar of how to do PPI in clinical research. The research collaboration on AD Awareness Day UK 2025 moved us a step closer to initiating our national randomized controlled trial of the DECIDE-TAD Decision Support Tool.
What Next?
On behalf of the national patient charity, the Trustees would like to thank all of the people and organisations that contributed to the first 10 wonderful years of Aortic Dissection Awareness Day UK.
Special thanks are due to our hosts, venues and speakers for their support of each event and the collaborations that have ensued to improve care for Aortic Dissection patients. Our friends at Terumo Aortic have sponsored the event since 2018. Their generosity has enabled us to scale the event as the charity grows and deliver an exceptional meeting every year. One of the remarkable things about AD Awareness Day UK is the number of patients walking around the room who are kept alive by Terumo Aortic products.
We are also very grateful to the professional societies who support and partner with us, as the national patient charity for Aortic Dissection: The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, The Royal College of Radiologists, The Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Vascular Society, The Intensive Care Society, The British Cardiovascular Society, The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the UK Aortic Society.
With this in mind, we are delighted to announce that the 11th Aortic Dissection Awareness Day UK, on Friday 19th September 2026, will be held in Birmingham and organised as a national conference in partnership with the UK Aortic Society. Please save the date and plan to join us if you are interested in Aortic Dissection.
