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About the ITP Support Association
Charity Registration No. 1064480
The ITP Support Association Volunteers
Founder/Chief Administrator
Shirley Watson
Publications Editor
Keith G. Lewis
Joint Treasurers
Edward & Sally Valletta
Web Site Manager
Howard Anderson
Contact List Co-Ordinator
Rhonda Anderson
Administrative Assistants
Dominique Williams
Derek & Rosemary Elston
Colin Clarke
Margaret Griffiths
Nev Watson
Trustees
Shirley Watson (Chair)
Keith Lewis
Edward Valletta
Medical Advisors
See list here
The ITP Support Association was formed in 1995 by Shirley Watson (whose son has ITP) to help those addressing the constraints of the condition. As the only UK charity for this disorder the Association has been in touch with nearly 4000 UK ITP sufferers to date, and has members in every continent. Initially, Support Association publications were aimed at ITP patients, but now appropriate information is also available for doctors, dentists and schools. A telephone network of sufferers, e-pals provides support and encouragement to those who need it, since the rarity of the disease often creates an acute sense of isolation, with ITP patients seldom meeting one another.
The Association was granted charity status in 1997 and in April 1998 held its first National Convention. Attended by nearly 150 people associated with ITP from the UK mainland and Ireland, either as clinician, patient or family supporter, the event proved to be an historic occasion. This was the first such pertaining to ITP nationally and even, it is thought, internationally. Subsequent annual conventions for patients and medical seminars for health professionals have attracted internationally renowned specialists to speak to a packed auditorium on various aspects of ITP.
Clinicians in the UK and USA give the Association much encouragement and assistance. Its seven eminent medical advisors are professionally recognised as foremost experts in the field of ITP, specialising in the treatment of the most difficult cases of adults, children and pregnant women with the disorder. A quarterly newsletter, The Platelet, provides the latest news about ITP related matters and includes answers by medical advisors Professor Adrian Newland and Dr. John Grainger to reader’s questions, and a column from Dr. Drew Provan giving and update from the UK’s leading ITP hospital, The Royal London. In addition, two leading specialists in America, Professor James George and Professor George Buchanan, contribute regular articles to provide an American perspective on ITP interests.
Every penny donated is used for the benefit of ITP sufferers, not for salaries of administrators or fundraisers, nor in costs of office premises. Run entirely by volunteers from their own homes, the Association charges no membership fee. It is supported mainly by donations from sufferers and/or their families, and from fund-raising activities by Friends of the ITP Support Association. The Association is funding clinical and data research into ITP in order to find the causes and improve management of this frightening disorder.
This website has been designed to work with as many web browsers as possible by coding with standard html. If you have any technical problems with this site, please contact web.admin@itpsupport.org.uk. Although every effort is made to ensure that the information given on this website is correct and up to date, the Association cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. Association personnel are not able to give clinical advice, please contact your personal clinician.