Happy Canada Day!
There’s never been anything like this in Canada. That’s exactly why we’re here. We’re starting a new conversation with young adults across the country.
Liver Awareness Foundation is the first liver health initiative in Canada created specifically for young adults.
Our mission: to empower young adults with liver health knowledge to break stigmas and combat the silent threats of liver disease.
Liver disease is rising in this generation, yet liver health is still not part of everyday conversation…
What Makes Us Different
At LAF, we combine lived experience, clinical expertise, and media strategy to shift how liver health is seen, understood, and talked about.
We speak directly to young adults, not with judgment, but with honesty, empathy, and urgency. Through education, storytelling, and science-backed resources, we focus on risks that often go unnoticed: ALD, MASLD, viral hepatitis, inflammation, and lifestyle-related liver conditions such as those linked to alcohol use and eating patterns.
Our leadership team brings together internationally recognized clinicians, researchers, and advisors, including a clinical psychiatrist known for his work at the intersection of mental health, substance use disorders, and complex medical conditions. Our Directors are trusted experts in Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease and advanced liver care, and our founder brings the lived experience of surviving alcohol-associated liver failure in her early 30s and reversing stage 4 liver disease.
We’re not just sharing facts. We’re creating space for truth, understanding, and early action, because knowing more, sooner, can save lives.
Our Story Is Real.
Liver Awareness Foundation was founded by Vanessa Wojtala, a survivor of life-threatening liver failure and stage 4 cirrhosis. With a background in journalism, media, and marketing communications, she turned her lived experience into a mission, helping others learn what she never had the chance to, before it was nearly too late.
What began as a fight to survive has grown into a wider mission to raise awareness, supported by Elizabeth Lee (Liz), a nurse practitioner at the Francis Family Liver Clinic at Toronto General Hospital. Liz is recognized for her leadership in hepatology and her commitment to advancing liver care and supporting patients’ health and well-being.
Liz played a vital role in Vanessa’s care and recovery, and was instrumental in shaping the early vision of the Foundation. She now serves as Vice President, bringing clinical expertise and strong leadership to the LAF board.
Alongside Liz, our Board Directors include Dr. Juan Pablo Arab, a globally recognized transplant hepatologist and clinical researcher, and Dr. Jennifer Flemming, a globally recognized clinical scientist and leading researcher in gastroenterology and hepatology. We also welcome Dr. Scott Winder to our team as a consulting psychiatrist specializing in mental health and behavioural risk as they relate to liver disease. With these nationally recognized leaders and experts in clinical care, research, and alcohol-associated liver disease, the Liver Awareness Foundation is building a platform where information is accessible, stigma is challenged, and young adults are empowered with the knowledge and tools to protect their health.
Why Young Adults?
Lifestyle-related liver diseases like Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease (ALD) and MASLD are rising in young adults, but most people don’t realize it.
Liver health still isn’t part of how this generation thinks about well-being, and that can have real consequences. Many young adults don’t recognize how everyday factors such as alcohol, stress, disordered eating, or medications can affect their liver over time.
We’re here to bring those connections into the open, to make prevention feel relevant, mental health part of the story, and liver health something you understand long before there’s a crisis.
This Is Just the Beginning
We’re proud to be building Canada’s first nonprofit liver health initiative created specifically for young adults.
Our vision is to make Liver Awareness Foundation a safe place and support platform for young adults, whether they’re seeking information, facing stigma, or living with lifestyle-related liver conditions, where early education, tools, and conversations about liver health are accessible and stigma-free.
From prevention to education, and from early action to open conversation, we’re creating space for young adults to be part of the liver health conversation.
What’s Next
We’re just getting started. Want to help change the story? Follow along, join the conversation, or reach out if you want to be part of Canada’s first youth liver health movement. Together, we can make liver health matter for every young adult in Canada. @liverawareness
