3 July 2012

Our Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of removing the requirement of a medical diagnosis to become a Member of the Charity at our Annual General Meeting on 30 June.

The proposal, to remove the requirement of a medical diagnosis of coeliac disease to become a Member of the Charity, saw a majority vote of 91% opting for the proposal. The result was a clear message of support and we really appreciate you letting us know your views.

The Charity remains firmly focused on improving the lives of people with coeliac disease and DH, which is at the heart of our constitution and our new strategy taking us forward to 2020. However, the change will allow us to be more accessible to people struggling to get a diagnosis, a problem we hear all too often, and to support all those affected by coeliac disease and their friends and family.

Many of you may remember that difficult road to diagnosis and we will, of course continue to campaign for improvements to ensure a better quality of life for all with coeliac disease. We have set ourselves the central challenge in our strategy of reducing the half a million people with undiagnosed coeliac disease by 300,000 and halving their time to diagnosis.

We will now be working towards making the change which will be implemented from 2013.

You can see more on the Annual Conference and AGM here.