The first NEC awareness day 17 May 2018 #NECday

17 May 2018 earmarks a big milestone to improve public awareness of NEC as we embark on the first ever #NECday. We need your support on social media to #SpeakingofNEC to spread the word. Since the first call in 2012 for an awareness day on https://www.change.org/p/nec-awareness-and-education-i-want-people-to-be-aware-of-this-devistating-illness, there finally is a #NECday.

Despite being the leading cause of poor outcomes and loss of life for newborns in critical care, Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC in short) remains a condition with low levels of public awareness. Often parents who are confronted with this diagnosis have never heard of this condition and hence feel disempowered during this stressful period.

To address this need, patient support groups have formulated much needed resources to parents to better understand this condition and form part of the fight to prevent and manage NEC.

http://support4nicuparents.org/for-parents/

https://www.bliss.org.uk/parents/about-your-baby/medical-conditions/necrotising-enterocolitis-nec-a-guide-for-parents

https://www.action.org.uk/necrotising-enterocolitis

To ensure this much needed information reaches parents in a timely manner, better public awareness is still needed. #PreventNEC #preventNEC #NECawareness #NECday

NEC is now being mobilised as a research priority all thanks to parent group affected by NEC spear heading the NECSociety to form an international collaboration INC.

https://necsociety.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/2017-nec-symposium-summary.pdf

So get involved at http://www.necuk.org.uk/nec-awareness-day …

NEC Advocates are loved ones of infants impacted by NEC who are eager to help protect other babies from this devastating disease. If you’d like to become an NEC Advocate the NEC society advocacy group please see https://necsociety.org/volunteer-opportunities/