The ITP Support Association is the sole UK registered charity supporting and representing the interests of patients, and the families of patients, with Immune Thrombocytopenia (formerly known as Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura), and funding research into the causes and best management of ITP.
The ITP Support Association was formed in 1995 to provide information and a support network for adults, and parents of children, with ITP. Immune Thrombocytopenia is a frightening rare bleeding disorder in which the body’s immune system destroys platelets in the blood.
Unlike autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and MS it is not progressive as the risk of bleeding exists from the day the disease develops.
It can arise in anyone at any age, and affects three to four thousand adults and children in the UK. Its symptoms vary from one sufferer to another but include nose bleeds, mouth blisters, heavy periods, large multi colour bruises, petechiae, fatigue and, on rare occasions, internal bleeding. Treatments, which all have their dangers and drawbacks, are not always effective in raising the platelet count, and only rarely cure the disease.
