The party perspective

The leaders of the UK's three main political parties, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have all taken time out of their busy pre-election schedules to answer some probing questions on what they're going to do about heart health.

Find out who the Prime Minister would write a love note too, how the Conservative party leader keeps his heart in shape, and how Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg would help address how different areas of the UK have such wildly different standards of health care.

We asked everyone the same questions so you can find out exactly what the big parties are planning for heart patients.

Download the interviews with Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg now!

Helping you care for your heart

Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust (PCT) has commissioned a new website called Caring for your Heart, which we think will be really useful for everyone.

It's been specially designed to help people of Muslim faith understand how to look after their hearts better. There are helpful videos in English, Urdu and Punjabi and a wealth of advice on how to eat better and exercise more.

Not many people know that South Asian people living in the UK have a higher risk of heart disease than the rest of the UK population. The web is full of exercise and diet ideas, but tips that apply to Western readers might not always be suitable.

Caring for your Heart is full of ideas on how to tackle heart disease. They recommend little ways to change your diet:

"Foods recommended in the Qur'an include fruit, vegetables, lentils, fish, dates, olives, figs, garlic and ginger. Try using olive oil or rapeseed oil instead of ghee and using wholemeal atta for chapatis. Having smaller portions on your plate will help you lose weight. Try to have rice or chapatis and not both at the same time."

They also have some very sensible tips on how to make exercise easy.

You can share your experiences too, and help other people start exercising and eating better!

The British Heart Foundation has a good range of heart health leaflets and magazines available in English, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu and Punjabi. So if your family is affected by heart disease or you just want to start cooking healthier recipes, we can help.

Make a note of Friday 26 February - it's National Wear Red Day!

February is National Heart Month and we’ve got a stack of exciting things coming up to celebrate it!

You can get involved too by doing something red at work, school or home.

Last year, Amanda and her friends got in the spirit and had a great time...

"We went red for my daughter Victoria, who underwent surgery for an unexpected heart condition at just 21 years old, and has since made a great recovery.

"We had a red party at home and asked people to interpret red however they wanted - the photo shows how inventive they were feeling. We had a great night and raised £750 for the BHF."

What will you do this year? Anything you like, as it happens!

Join National Wear Red Day on Friday 26 February. Bake red cakes. Paint your face red. Anything goes as long as it’s red.

Get your free fundraising kit at bhf.org.uk/red or call 0845 241 0976.

Who's running this town?

It looks like Santa is! At least in Newbury, Tunbridge Wells, Milton Keynes, Basingstoke, Cardiff, Salford, Reading... the list goes on and on (and everyone on it is nice, not naughty!). The folks of Hayling Island (19 December) and Sheffield (20 December) are still expecting a visit too, so it's not too late to get your Santa on!

A massive thank you to everyone who's dedicated their time, money, and effort this Christmas to helping us beat heart disease. You're all legends! And our events teams across the country have done a fantastic job organising it all.

Your intrepid online reporter volunteered for the Reading Santa Jog, and I have to tell you there really is no sight quite like several hundred Santas, elves, and suspiciously puppy-eyed reindeers cresting over the top of a hill! Take a look at some of the highlights so far:

Happy Christmas everybody!

L2B 2010 details revealed, summer just around the corner...

What better way to shrug off thoughts of the approaching wintry weather?

We've just published registration details for next summer's London to Brighton Bike Ride!

If you need convincing, or even just reminding, have a look at the photos from this year's ride (wow, what a warm day that was).

Sue's big day out

We get so many volunteers who do so much amazing work for us. We're really grateful that people devote their time to help out - you're all helping us to finally beat heart disease, together!

You can find our British Heart Foundation shops on nearly every high street (find your nearest one here), and they raise loads of money to help us fund our heart research, helplines, doctors and nurses. They're also a huge part of the community, as volunteer Sue Woodrow recently found out at the Colchester shop:

"Serena the Manageress of the shop greeted me and showed me around, I was introduced to John the Assistant Manager and all the dedicated volunteers. All the staff were very friendly and I was made to feel very welcome.

"There were lots of bags of clothes and bric a brac to sort out into various trolleys and bags and then clothes were steamed, tagged and placed on hangers, bric a brac was priced accordingly before all was sent to the shop floor. Thank you all for my cups of tea to keep me going.

"Mike and Jill showed me how to tag the clothes, more involved than I thought, had to put in different codes for different items on the price tickets, thank you both for being patient with me.

"I would like to say how hard Serena, John and their staff work and the dedication they showed, the shop was very well run and I was pleased to be part of the team. Thank you for making my day enjoyable!"

Find out more about how to volunteer for us.

Making a difference in Cookstown, Northern Ireland

We've recently launched a huge £9 million programme called Hearty Lives, and we're using the money to help people in isolated or deprived areas to look after their hearts.

One of the first places on our long list was Cookstown in County Tyrone, NI. This lovely picturesque town nonetheless suffers from the third highest premature death rate from heart disease in Northern Ireland, so we're setting up an innovative £200,000 heart health programme for them.

We'll be concentrating first on the parts of Cookstown where people are most likely to die early from heart disease. We've got a nurse educator on board, who's going to visit community groups and workplaces, like local meat factory Vion, to give free advice and support.

We're also going to train up local people with emergency life saving skills, and helping heart patients get access to cardiac rehabilitation, which can dramatically improve quality of life!

Hearty Lives is already doing life-saving work in Hastings, Dundee and Newham, and we're all set to help bring help to even more places in real need of better heart health. Keep an eye out next week, when we'll be announcing our next project!