Waddesdon Manor to light up red in support of little known children's illness

The National Trust building will join over 140 landmarks across the country lighting up on the 26th January to mark International Kawasaki Disease Awareness Day.

As part of the awareness campaign by Societi - the UK Kawasaki Disease foundation - Waddeson Manor will be a part of the 142 landmarks, bridges and iconic buildings lighting up for the international day of awareness for the disease later this month. 

Kawasaki disease is a type of vasculitis - meaning a condition which causes the inflammation of blood vessels - which mainly affects young children,  and is the leading cause of heart disease in children in the UK. Societi add that their research shows that around 1,500 hospital admissions will be made this year for Kawasaki Disease, with incidences increasing rapidly worldwide for the disease once considered rare. The foundation emphasise that it is an illness every parent should know, being more common than some forms of meningitis and causing more hospitalisations than measles.

Despite the seriousness of the disease, Societi say it is not well known and that the light-up campaign is part of their work to combat this poor awareness, which they say contributes to the common problem of initial misdiagnosis. They hope that by helping families to know more about the disease, children across the country will have a better chance of earlier diagnosis and rapid treatment. The foundation's founder, Rachel McCormack says that with this awareness approach, "we can reduce the number of children suffering the devastating effect of serious, lifelong heart damage".

Rachel added that Societi are "thrilled that Waddesdon Manor will be shining a light on Kawasaki Disease and we are extremely grateful to the National Trust for their amazing support", adding that all the landmarks lighting up across the country are "helping us to protect children's hearts, and that is just amazing".

To find out more about Kawasaki Disease and the work of Societi, visit their website here.