Liver Awareness Foundation

Liver Awareness Foundation Empowering young adults with liver health knowledge to break stigmas and combat the silent threats of liver disease. Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.™

10/08/2026

PL: Rozmowa zaczyna się właśnie tutaj. 🇵🇱

Mamy dziś pokolenie młodych ludzi dotkniętych chorobami wątroby, którzy do tej pory nie mieli w Kanadzie przestrzeni stworzonej specjalnie z myślą o nich.

Wielu wciąż uważa, że choroby wątroby dotyczą wyłącznie starszych pokoleń. Tymczasem młodzi dorośli również są narażeni.

W 2022 roku założycielka i prezeska Liver Awareness Foundation, Vanessa Wojtala doświadczyła ciężkiej niewydolności wątroby związanej ze spożywaniem alkoholu.

To doświadczenie doprowadziło do powstania Liver Awareness Foundation, aby młodzi ludzie nie byli dłużej pomijani w rozmowach o zdrowiu wątroby.

Dziś dzieli się tą misją w języku polskim, nawiązując do swoich korzeni.

Przełamujemy milczenie. Odrzucamy wstyd.
Dbajcie o swoją wątrobę. Ona Was potrzebuje.

EN: The conversation starts right here. 🇨🇦

We have a generation of young people affected by liver disease who, until now, have had no dedicated space built specifically for them across Canada.

Many still believe liver disease only affects older generations. The reality is that young adults are at risk, too.

We are here to ensure young adults are no longer left out of the liver health conversation.

Today, Vanessa shares this mission in Polish, honouring her roots and reaching out to the Polish community.

We are breaking the silence. We are rejecting the shame.
Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®

🔗 www.liverawareness.org

Liver risks are quiet. Behind closed doors, everyday patterns become just that: patterns.Liver disease develops silently...
10/07/2026

Liver risks are quiet.

Behind closed doors, everyday patterns become just that: patterns.

Liver disease develops silently.

That’s why liver health education needs to exist where life actually happens.

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®
www.liverawareness.org

WE ARE DEMASKING THE SHAME SURROUNDING ALCOHOL-ASSOCIATED LIVER DISEASE. Vanessa A. Alexandria As Canada’s first registe...
10/06/2026

WE ARE DEMASKING THE SHAME SURROUNDING ALCOHOL-ASSOCIATED LIVER DISEASE. Vanessa A. Alexandria

As Canada’s first registered liver health charity built for young people, we are bringing alcohol-associated liver disease out of the shadows and into the national conversation with a new generation. 🔥

Thank you to Elizabeth (Liz) Lee, MN, NP, Specialist Clinician at the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease (UHN), and Vice President of our Board, for your willingness to listen, genuinely care, collaborate, and recognize the value of lived experience alongside clinical expertise.

The way Liz cares for people facing liver disease extends far beyond medicine. It is deeply human, compassionate, and free of judgment. She is a true testament to what humanity in medicine can look like, creating the kind of safety that empowers people to make life-changing decisions about their health.

📊 FACT: Alcohol-associated liver disease is rising among young women.

🛑 MYTH: Declining drinking rates among Gen Z do not mean alcohol-related risk has disappeared. Among young people who do drink, patterns of heavier alcohol use can still place them at risk for alcohol-associated liver disease.

A huge shoutout to the Francis Family Liver Clinic at Toronto General Hospital University Health Network where this connection first began, and to your incredible team of liver clinicians for the work you continue to do every day for patients and families.

If you’re new here and still haven’t had the chance to watch yet, Episode One of the Mind Your Liver Podcast™ is available on YouTube!

🎙️ Episode One: Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease with Elizabeth Lee

www.mindyourliverpodcast.com

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®

10/04/2026

🚨 ALCOHOL-RELATED LIVER DISEASE IS RISING IN YOUNG PEOPLE, AND IT’S FAR WORSE IN WOMEN.

🎙️ An educational production by Liver Awareness Foundation

Vanessa A. Alexandria, Hepatologist, Clinician Scientist and Researcher Dr. Jennifer Flemming discusses findings highlighting a concerning rise in alcohol-related liver disease among young adults, with particularly significant increases among women.

The research examined alcohol-associated hepatitis, one of the most severe forms of alcohol-associated liver disease. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and featured in People Magazine, the findings underscore the urgent need for greater awareness, earlier conversations, and earlier intervention.

Many people still associate alcohol-related liver disease with older adults. Increasingly, that is no longer the reality.

🎙️ Dr. Jennifer Flemming
Hepatologist, Clinician Scientist & Researcher

www.mindyourliverpodcast.com
📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube.
🎧 Listen on Spotify.

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®

MEET OUR TEAM. A NEW GENERATION OF LIVER HEALTH: BUILDING A NEW STANDARDChanging future outcomes requires action. It req...
10/02/2026

MEET OUR TEAM.

A NEW GENERATION OF LIVER HEALTH: BUILDING A NEW STANDARD

Changing future outcomes requires action. It requires openly speaking the truth: liver disease is taking young lives.
Liver Awareness Foundation began with a personal experience of liver failure, a relationship formed in liver care, and a determination to change what happens before someone reaches a crisis.

When Founder & President Vanessa Wojtala entered the Francis Family Liver Clinic following liver failure, she had the privilege of coming under the care of liver specialist Elizabeth Lee. What began there grew beyond the clinic, revealing a critical gap in how young adults understand and engage with liver health.

That gap became the foundation for a shared vision: start the conversation sooner.

Today, our team brings together hepatology, clinical care, research, psychiatry, and the experience that started it all.
We are bringing forward conversations about behavioural risks, mental health, alcohol use disorder, alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD), MASLD (fatty liver disease), metabolic health, stigma, and early detection for a generation that has been left in the dark for too long.

Together, we are building a new standard for liver health education, one that starts earlier, speaks differently, and reflects the realities of a new generation.

This changes with us.

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®
Vanessa A. Alexandria

10/01/2026

This October, we’re bringing liver health into a conversation that should have started a long time ago.

Liver Awareness Foundation launches a new public service announcement with one message at its core: LIFE IS IN MOTION. LIVER HEALTH EDUCATION SHOULD BE TOO.

Society is evolving. It has been.
Liver health education has not.

Young adults are showing up in emergency rooms, liver clinics and hospitals with advanced liver disease.

At the same time, young adults are moving through a world that looks very different from the one generations before them grew up in.

The way we socialize, drink, eat, approach wellness, use medications and supplements, and think about our health continues to change.

We’re here to openly introduce conversations about:

Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD).
MASLD (fatty liver disease).
Metabolic risk factors.
Viral hepatitis.
Autoimmune and genetic liver conditions.
Medication and supplement-related liver injury.

Different risks. Different diseases.
Everyone has a different story.

The reality is that young adults are moving through life without the liver health education they need to understand risk sooner.

Why should that education begin only after something has already gone wrong?

It shouldn’t. Because young adults deserve to understand their liver before they are forced to.

Read our full announcement + watch the new PSA.
🔗 Link in bio.

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®
Vanessa A. Alexandria

09/30/2026

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE BOTH METABOLIC RISK FACTORS AND HIGH-RISK ALCOHOL USE?

An educational production by Liver Awareness Foundation
On Vanessa A. Alexandria, Hepatologist and Clinician Scientist Dr. Jennifer Flemming explains a newer term being used within the liver field: MetALD.

MetALD is a liver condition that occurs when a person has both metabolic health issues, such as obesity or diabetes, and consumes alcohol above defined thresholds.

As metabolic risk factors become increasingly common in our population, understanding how they can intersect with alcohol use is becoming an important part of the liver health conversation.

Metabolic risk factors can include conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal blood lipids, and excess weight.

As Dr. Flemming explains, “probably the largest proportion of patients are in this group.”

Knowing your risk factors is an important part of understanding your liver health.

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®

09/28/2026

WHY WE ARE HERE: YOUNG PEOPLE ARE BEING DIAGNOSED WITH LIVER DISEASE EARLIER. PERIOD.

Liver disease isn’t one diagnosis. It includes:

• Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD)
• Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD / fatty liver disease)
• Viral hepatitis
• Autoimmune liver diseases
• Genetic and inherited liver conditions
• Medication- and supplement-related liver injury
• Cirrhosis
• Liver failure
• Liver cancer

THE RISKS AREN’T ALWAYS OBVIOUS.

Everyday behaviours and health risks can affect the liver without us realizing it. Alcohol use, metabolic risk factors, certain medications and supplements, and other exposures can contribute to liver injury, often without obvious symptoms early on.

Some liver diseases are preventable. Some aren’t. And YOUNG PEOPLE DON’T USUALLY REALIZE something is wrong until liver disease has already progressed.

Young people deserve to understand their liver health before there’s a crisis.

The conversation starts with us.
Vanessa A. Alexandria

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®

www.liverawareness.org

Source: CDC/NCHS mortality data

09/25/2026

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.® is the core of Liver Awareness Foundation and the founding principle behind our approach to prevention, education, support, and earlier action.

IT IS THE PRINCIPLE OUR WORK IS BUILT ON.

Young adults are arriving in hospitals with advanced liver disease without the knowledge, conversations, and opportunities for earlier action they deserved.

Our work is built around changing that:

1. PROACTIVE EDUCATION

Young adults deserve liver health knowledge before a crisis.

2. INCLUSIVE PREVENTION

Prevention must reflect the many conditions, risk factors, and lifestyles that can affect liver health.

3. EARLIER CONVERSATIONS

Young adults need conversations about liver health before something goes wrong, not for the first time when it does.

4. EARLIER ACTION

Knowledge should give young adults the tools to recognize risks, ask questions, and seek appropriate care earlier.
This is a new generation of liver health.

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®

Vanessa A. Alexandria
Vanessa Wojtala

09/24/2026

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.® is the core of Liver Awareness Foundation and the founding principle behind our approach to prevention, education, support, and earlier action.

IT IS THE PRINCIPLE OUR WORK IS BUILT ON.

Young adults are arriving in hospitals with advanced liver disease without the knowledge, conversations, and opportunities for earlier action they deserved.

Our work is built around changing that:

PROACTIVE EDUCATION

Young adults deserve liver health knowledge before a crisis.

INCLUSIVE PREVENTION

Prevention must reflect the many conditions, risk factors, and lifestyles that can affect liver health.

EARLIER CONVERSATIONS

Young adults need conversations about liver health before something goes wrong, not for the first time when it does.

EARLIER ACTION

Knowledge should give young adults the tools to recognize risks, ask questions, and seek appropriate care earlier.

This is a new generation of liver health.

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®

Vanessa A. Alexandria Vanessa Wojtala

Address

2 Bloor Street East. Suite 3500
Toronto, ON
M4W1A8

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