Charities worldwide show support for Get-A-Head campaign

Organisations from as far as Kenya and the United States are throwing their support behind a global awareness day for our GET-A-HEAD campaign, alongside Harry's Hydrocephalus Awareness Trust (Harry's HAT).

The campaign is continuing to highlight the importance of regular head circumference monitoring in the first year of a baby's life, to help detect potentially life-threatening brain conditions, such as hydrocephalus.

Each year, 400,000 children across the world are diagnosed with the condition, which is also known as 'water on the brain'. A rapidly growing or unusually large head is one of the key symptoms and can be identified early by taking and recording head measurements at routine baby health checks.

Caroline Coates is the CEO of Harry's HAT and launched the charity after her own son's diagnosis of hydrocephalus in 2018. She says many of the families they work with are reporting failures by health professionals to record head measurement: "We regularly have families getting in contact with us with heart breaking stories about opportunities for early diagnosis which have been missed. As a charity, we see the impact for that baby and also their parents.

"We want to work with centres across the globe to make sure that no child with hydrocephalus is left behind, simply because their head wasn't measured."

On Global Get-A-Head day; charities, organisations and individuals are showing their support for the campaign in short video clips. Diana Gray is the President and CEO of the Hydrocephalus Association in the USA: "Measuring head circumference is a really important diagnostic tool to detect hydrocephalus, so let's work together and make sure medics across the world are using head circumference measurements to help keep our children safe."

Desire Ngoga is a neurosurgery registrar at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital: "In the realm of caring and healing, we are entrusted with an important privilege to look after young children; and there's one small thing we can do to improve the outcome for young kids - and that is head circumference. This minute measurement can be an insight to many conditions, such as hydrocephalus, microcephaly and craniosynostosis. By measuring the head regularly we can pre-empt problems and spot difficulties earlier. Each measurement you take is not merely a number but a gateway to a brighter future in your care."

Philip Daw is the marketing manager at Codman, which develops and manufactures life-saving medical equipment and technologies. "Although I work in the med-tech centre, it's not always the most advanced technologies that are needed. Measuring and recording head circumference is a simple, effective and inexpensive tool that can make a real difference in the early detection of hydrocephalus in babies."

The Get-A-Head campaign is also calling for improvements in baby health care across England, which would include more face-to-face contact, and better communication with health professionals about the importance of head circumference measurements.

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• head circumference
• baby health care