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All contributions, no matter how big or small, matter greatly to our charity. Our generous supporters have been funding state-of-the-art equipment, essential hospital supplies, and training new obstetric physicians since 1999.
Scroll down to discover just some of the direct impacts the Lauren Page Trust has had in the obstetric medicine world.
If you have anything to spare, the quickest, and easiest way to donate is by clicking the button below, where you can specify your amount to the penny. Thank you to all of our kind supporters.
Rahat Maitland
One of the cornerstones of the Lauren Page Trust is to fund the training of experts in order to provide Britain with more specialists in obstetric medicine. Well, your kind donations have done just that.
We have been able to financially support the newest addition to the UK's very small band of specialist professionals - Rahat Maitland, a fellow in obstetric medicine, specialising in diabetes in pregnancy.
Here she tells us her story in her own words:
"I am proud to be the first post-CCT fellow (nationally recognised senior physician trainee) in obstetric medicine and remain incredibly indebted to the Lauren Page Trust for funding this important post. The fellowship provided an outstanding and unique opportunity to learn under the mentorship of Professors Nelson-Piercy and Williamson who have been patrons of the Lauren Page Trust for many years. At Guy's and St. Thomas's NHS Foundation Trusts, I have developed specialist expertise in the management of more serious obstetric complications such as pre-eclampsia and very high blood pressure by caring for women on the obstetric high dependency and intensive care units. For women with complex medical conditions, the journey to a successful outcome can often be very long and full of disappointments from trying to conceive to managing ongoing health issues in pregnancy which poses many challenges.
"The fellowship highlighted the importance of working together with specialist colleagues to provide seamless care and improve the patient journey.
"One thing I will definitely take away from this experience is the importance of engaging fully with couples and really trying to understand the struggles, setbacks, and fears they may face trying to achieve a positive pregnancy outcome. The work of the Lauren Page Trust is inspirational. Not only has the charity contributed significantly to improving care across London for women with complex pregnancies, with the provision of vital equipment but their support of important medical research has contributed to a greater understanding of pregnancy-specific conditions.
"Moving forward I am now a consultant in Glasgow and already participating in regular obstetric medicine and diabetes antenatal clinics and regularly utilising the knowledge learned in the past year. "Working closely with pregnant women together with their families who allowed me to share their highs and lows has been a humbling experience. I am delighted to have joined the Obstetric Medicine community and meet many like-minded colleagues who continue to mentor me.
"I can't thank everyone enough at the Lauren Page Trust and their supporters for contributing so much to my personal and professional development by making this happen!"
Professor Catherine Williamson
The Lauren Page Trust has awarded Professor Catherine Williamson’s research group several small grants over the past 10 years. Often they are for small projects that are at an early stage and are less likely to attract funding from other sources. However, importantly, they allow Cath's team to generate enough data that they can apply for larger, grant funding. As a result, these projects directly influence the care of women with metabolic diseases in pregnancy, including gestational diabetes, cholestasis and cirrhosis. Now for the science bit. Here are some examples of the work your donations have helped to fund:
Grant to enable Dr Shadi Abu-Hayyeh to show that breakdown products of progesterone (progesterone sulphates) affect bile salt metabolism to cause cholestasis in pregnancy.
This resulted in a high-impact research paper (1) and Wellcome Trust programme grant for £1.3 million to study the ways that progesterone sulphates influence the development of metabolic diseases in pregnancy.Grant to enable Dr Peter Dixon to investigate new genes that cause pregnant women to be at risk of the commonest pregnancy-specific liver disease, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP). This resulted in a research paper (2) and Professor Williamson and Dr Dixon were able to demonstrate ongoing productivity in genetic studies of pregnancy disorders and were chosen as the only pregnancy researchers to be part of the large national whole genome sequencing study, NIHR BioResource Rare Diseases collaboration. The results from the whole genome sequencing project are currently being analysed. They have found disease-causing changes in several genes. These results will have considerable clinical impact, as it is now likely that women with severe, early onset ICP will be eligible for genetic testing by the NHS.
Grant to study the outcome of all UK pregnant women with cirrhosis. This is underway and following the award Professor Williamson was asked to be a collaborator on a European Network grant to study serious liver disorders in pregnancy across Europe.
Bridging funding for Dr Saraid McIlvride to study whether high bile acids in the blood influence release of gut hormones that influence the pancreas islet cells to make women more likely to develop diabetes in pregnancy. This work is being submitted for publication.
Additional funds for Dr Saraid McIlvride to investigate the impact of the pregnancy hormone progesterone (and progesterone sulphates) on the activity pancreas islet cells to cause women to have increased risk of diabetes in pregnancy. This work is currently underway and will be continued by a PhD student at the end of Dr McIlvride’s contract.
Notes:
1. Abu-Hayyeh S, Papacleovoulou G, Lövgren-Sandblom A, Tahir M, Oduwole O, Akmal Jamaludin N, Ravat S, Nikolova V, Chambers J, Selden C, Rees M, Marschall HU, Parker MG, Williamson C. Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy Levels of Sulfated Progesterone Metabolites Inhibit FXR Resulting in a Pro-Cholestatic Phenotype. Hepatology 2013 Feb; 57(2): 716-26.
2. P.H Dixon, M Sambrotta, J Chambers, R Thompson, C Williamson. Candidate Genes for Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy – Expanded Roles for Familial Cholestasis Loci. Scientific Reports 2017; 7(1): 11823.
Professor Catherine Nelson-Piercey
"I wanted to give you an update on our proteinuria and thrombosis study which you kindly provided funding for in 2012.
“We have performed a preliminary analysis including the thromboelastography, and some urine antithrombin assays. The initial results are looking interesting, but the main limitation is that we do not have enough samples from 'cases' (women with heavy proteinruria) to be able to do an adequately powered analysis.
“I am keen to be able to answer our clinical question properly, rather than rushing on and running the rest of the assays without really being able to draw firm conclusions from our findings.
“We now have funding for a second study which will involve sample collection from 10 different centres over the next three years (Pregnancy AND kidney Injury Renal Study), through which I am really confident that we should be able to recruit enough women, and perform a really good analysis, which is able to address the clinical problem of thromboprophylaxis in these women.
“Kate Bramham and her team have started a study to look at how increased protein leaking from damaged kidneys in pregnancy affects the coagulability (stickiness) of blood. Pregnant women with kidney disease often have large amounts of protein in their urine which gets worse during pregnancy. This results in the potential loss of proteins which usually act to prevent blood clots. Without these anticoagulant proteins, women may be at risk of blood clots in their legs, lungs and in the placenta which could affect the transfer of nutrients and oxygen to their baby.
“To find at what level Thromboprophylaxis (blood thinning) treatment can be given to prevent clots, but requires women to give themselves a daily injection and may cause local bruising. The team are trying to find what level of protein leaking in the urine is important to start thromboprophylaxis. This will prevent dangerous blood clots and avoid women having to have unnecessary injections.
“So far the team have discovered that women who are heavier and with high blood pressure tend to have stickier blood. They are now recruiting more women with kidney disease throughout the UK to compare urine protein levels with blood coagulability."
Neonatal Unit Equipment
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£1,233.00
2 x Ameda Elite Breast Pumps - Whipps Cross
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£18,000.00
NicoletOne ICU/CFM Monitor - Royal Hospital London
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£30,400.00
BRM3 Brain Monitor with internal back-up batteries - Royal London Hospital and Homerton Hospital
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£28,580.00
Criticool patient cooling systems and Infant CureWraps - Royal London & Homerton Hospital
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£433.18
Sofa for Parents in Neonatal Waiting Room - Whipps Cross Hospital
Make a donation.
Lauren was one of thousands of extra special babies born prematurely in the UK every year.
Thankfully, due to the dedication and expertise of the medical teams who look after these tiny babies, many of them, against all the odds, survive and grow into beautiful children.
Unfortunately some like Lauren, despite fighting in many cases for months, lose their battle for life.
This charity has been formed in memory of Lauren and all the other brave babies to give hope to parents and support to the medical teams who work so tirelessly. The Lauren Page Trust is a charity set up to raise money to fund research, specialist staff such as Consultant Obstetric Physicians and equipment for hospitals and Neonatal Units (what used to be called Special Care Baby Units.)
Any support we receive is appreciated, and there are all sorts of ways you can get involved, donating directly is just one aspect, find out more below.