On March 17, 2018—a year to the day from his diagnosis
of liver cancer—Villiotti received a call that a donor liver was
available. On March 18, he was wheeled into the operating
room; six hours later, he was wheeled out with a new,
functioning liver.
Villiotti was able to return home on March 26, 2018,
following his recovery in intensive care. More than a year
later, Villiotti, now 72, is keeping his weight in check,
exercising daily and eating healthy foods.
“This is the best I have felt in at least 15 years,” he says. “I
have plenty of energy and feel great.”
Now, Villiotti is on a mission to help others like him.
Hoping to increase awareness of NAFLD, NASH and
cirrhosis, he launched a nonprofit organization called NASH
kNOWledge in September 2018.
“My experience with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
motivated me to start the nonprofit,” he says. “I believed that
if I had known more about NAFLD I could have reversed
my condition and it never would have advanced to the
transplant stage. My successful transplant left me with the
desire to ‘pay it forward’ and try to prevent others from
repeating my experience.”
The organization’s website, www.nash-now.org, offers a
gold mine of information and resources about all stages of
liver disease, as well as Tony’s personal blog and articles
about the latest research.
“There are still plenty of information voids that need
to be addressed,” says Villiotti. “We hope to spend time
developing information for parents and school nurses on
childhood NAFLD and NASH, which is a growing problem.
We also hope to provide more nutrition information on
our website. Our overarching goal is to make more inroads,
especially in Pittsburgh, on increasing awareness.”
Part of Villiotti’s efforts include a documentary, “Silent
Epidemic: The Liver Disease NASH,” which was released
to the public at a special screening on June 12, International
NASH Day, at the Carnegie Science Center.
“We decided to do the film in order to make the general
public more aware of NAFLD and NASH,” he says. “We
are hoping that a person who otherwise would not be
concerned about liver health will see the documentary and
be alerted about the ticking time bomb that is NASH. We
saw it as another way to increase public awareness.”
Villiotti and his family worked with Ron Bruno from The
Videohouse in Green Tree to finish the project. Through
Bruno, award-winning television veteran Susan Brozek
Scott was hired as the producer and writer. The film features
reenactments and interviews with Villiotti, his wife Betsy
and his treatment team. He says the response to the project
has been positive, and they’re now looking for ways to share
it with more people.
“I hope others will learn how important good liver health
is, and how liver disease can sneak up on you,” he says. “The
tagline we use is ‘Awareness + Action = Control.’ If a person
is aware of the dangers and increasing incidence of non-
alcoholic liver disease, he or she can take steps to avoid it.
If a person has one of the risk factors—Type 2 diabetes and
obesity are major risk factors—they need to talk with their
doctors and be sure to monitor their liver health.” ■
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