• Half a million people in the UK are living with undiagnosed coeliac disease
• People have to wait on average 13 years from first symptoms to diagnosis
• You can help improve people’s lives by getting them to ask ‘Is it coeliac disease?’

You can help get more people diagnosed

There are currently around half a million people in the UK that are living with coeliac disease and do not know it. Every day they could be eating a bowl of cereal at breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, or a plate of pasta for dinner and causing themselves damage, pain and suffering.

When someone eventually receives a confirmed diagnosis, they are more than likely to be well into their 50s. At present, it is recognised that these people have had to wait on average around 13 years from the first signs of their condition, to get this diagnosis.

So far, since our campaign launched we have:

• released our first ever online and TV advertising campaign reaching over 40 million people since it began, driving more than 200,000 people to our website. Over 50,000 people have now completed our online assessment
• taken our campaign on tour. Between May 2015 and August 2016 we visited London, Leeds, Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and Newcastle. We held pop up events where staff and volunteers issued over 25,000 campaign leaflets and 13,000 gluten-free snacks
• assessed and tested almost 500 people for coeliac disease at our pop up events with 17% of people referred to their GP for further investigation following a positive test result using the point of care test Simtomax
• provided posters and leaflets for patients in over 12,000 GP surgeries across the UK
• held our first ever national leafleting day with fantastic support from over 130 volunteers
• driven the introduction of Informatica in Wales, a new software tool to help GPs identify patients who might have undiagnosed coeliac disease
• completed a project to assess the use of community pharmacy for better recognition of coeliac disease, the findings are now published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.

From diagnosis rates to eating out, we campaign to change and improve the lives of those with coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis (DH). We influence governments, healthcare professionals, businesses and the public to create a better life for the 1 in 100 people in the UK with the condition.

But we can’t do it on our own. With your help, our voice is louder and our impact greater. Together we can create real change for the future.

We’re encouraging you to join our campaign to find these 500,000 people with undiagnosed coeliac disease in the UK by getting them to ask ‘Is it Coeliac Disease?’. Please visit our campaign website for further information or to view the campaign.