Over 140 UK Landmarks Shine a Light to Combat the #1 Cause of Acquired Heart Disease in Children

What if there was a serious children’s illness that was a more common reason for young children to be hospitalised than measles.... More common and just as serious as some forms of meningitis - you’d want to know about it if there are children in your world, wouldn’t you?! 

A simply huge awareness campaign is underway across the whole of the U.K., to shine a light on a serious, increasingly common but little-known children’s illness – and to let you know you **need to know** Kawasaki Disease. 

A staggering 142 landmarks, bridges and iconic buildings in every part of the U.K. will light up in *red* on 26 January to mark International Kawasaki Disease Awareness Day! 

Pembrokeshire will be taking part, bringing urgently needed awareness of this too-often devastating disease to our community, with the lighting up of Pembrokeshire County Council, thanks to the support of Pembrokeshire County Council. Children’s charity Societi, the U.K. Foundation for Kawasaki Disease has coordinated this campaign, and with a huge amount of support including from Pembrokeshire - it’s their biggest light-up campaign yet! The charity is campaigning throughout January to make sure that every parent and every doctor knows Kawasaki Disease. 

Societi Foundation is working to combat poor awareness, as currently about a quarter of children affected by Kawasaki Disease go on to have serious, lifelong heart damage. This has been linked to delay in recognising and treating the disease - and more needs to be done to ensure doctors and parents know and can recognise the symptoms. 

Kawasaki Disease can be fatal too, and Societi is campaigning to help ensure no more children's lives are lost to Kawasaki Disease. 

Local families with children affected by Kawasaki Disease have worked with the charity to make sure our local landmark lights up - knowing just how important it is for our community to know this disease! With early diagnosis and treatment, most children will make a good recovery. 

Professor Robert Tulloh is a paediatric cardiologist and Chairman of Societi Foundation and is an expert in Kawasaki Disease. He said “Early diagnosis and rapid treatment reduces the risk of children with Kawasaki Disease suffering from devastating heart damage (1). Awareness of the signs and symptoms in the UK will help significantly with this, so this campaign will make a difference to children who are affected.” 

Rachael McCormack, Founder of Societi Foundation said: ‘We are thrilled that Pembrokeshire County Council will be shining a light on Kawasaki Disease and we are extremely grateful to Pembrokeshire County Council for their amazing support. Despite Kawasaki Disease being increasingly common, low public awareness means it’s often initially misdiagnosed, putting children’s hearts at risk. We NEED families to KNOW Kawasaki Disease so we can reduce the number of children suffering the devastating effect of serious, lifelong heart damage. We are so grateful to the huge number of landmarks across the UK that are lighting up for International Kawasaki Disease Awareness Day. They really are helping us to protect children’s hearts, and that is just amazing”. 

For more information and to find out more, or to see how you can support the charity in their goal to protect children's hearts, visit the charity's website at www.societi.org.uk.