The Ann Fox Foundation

The Ann Fox Foundation supports liver transplant patients and their families, in memory of Ann Fox, a liver transplant recipient from the Isle of Man.

Thanks to the donations raised by The Ann Fox Foundation, in 2019 the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was able to purchase an Organox machine which can increase the numbers of livers suitable for transplants by keeping blood and oxygen pumping through them even after donation.

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Every November, Tony Fox and his family organise a black tie ball at the Empress Hotel in Douglas.

A great time is had by all and valuable funds are raised each year to support liver transplant patients in memory of Ann Fox.

Thanks to donations raised by the Fox Family, we pioneered the NAPLES project; using new technology of testing and preserving livers, this initiative has enabled more than 70 complex transplants since 2018.

The NAPLES Project

Each year over 1,000 patients across the UK will require a liver transplant, but sadly not all of them will receive the life-saving organ that they need.

Clinicians at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, led by Consultant Transplant Surgeon Mr Thamara Perera, are working on a ground-breaking research project, known as the NAPLES Project, to increase the number of liver transplants that can be carried out.

NAPLES, Normothermic mAchine Perfusion of the Liver to Enable Sickest first transplantation, is a research project which utilises the OrganOx Machine which uses perfusion to keep a donated liver 'alive' outside the body for up to 24 hours.

This allows doctors to fully check the viability of the liver for transplantation, cleanse it and often improve its quality, making more livers available for transplantation. This machine was brought to the hospital following a successful fundraising campaign by the Liver Foundation UK, part of QEHB Charity, with the support of the Ann Fox Foundation.

Without this machine, surgeons have a very short time to assess whether a liver is suitable for transplant and, given the risks of transplanting with an inappropriate organ, have to reject many marginal livers.

Help us support the NAPLES Project further, which has the potential to change the way that liver transplants are carried out worldwide.