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.

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!

How Huw donated himself to the BHF

Tune in to C4 for The Secret Millionaire at 9pm tonight, and before the show watch one of our supporters Huw Roberts (pictured right) talking about the BHF!

Huw will appear in a Vodafone Foundation Donate Yourself ad, which asked members of the public which charity they support.

Huw is a key volunteer from Cardiff, and raised over £6000 for the BHF after completing a 70-mile pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

His drive to fundraise for the BHF came after his father was fitted with a pacemaker.

Going abroad or staying at home?

Check out our travel tips for heart patients, our guide to help your holiday run smoothly - PLUS get a free podcast...

Take me there now!

Statins and heart health

Statins are a drug currently prescribed to healthy people who are at high risk of heart disease, perhaps because of a family history of heart disease, or high cholesterol levels.

They can also help prevent further problems for people who have had a heart attack or stroke.

Statins lower cholesterol in your blood. High cholesterol can lead to fatty deposits building up in your arteries, which may lead to coronary heart disease.

As with any drug there is a risk of side effects, but with statins these are usually mild and easy to spot and treat.

The British Medical Journal recently published a paper which suggests statins could be useful for everyone, whether they have the symptoms of heart disease or not.

Our senior cardiac nurse, Cathy Ross, says that this may have implications on when doctors prescribe statins.

Have you had experience of statins? Please leave us a comment, or you can join us on Facebook and Twitter and share your experiences there.

So who says Friday the 13th has to be unlucky?

You may or may not be aware that this Friday, the 13th of February, is officially National Wear Red Day.

As part of our National Heart Month, Wear Red Day aims to raise vital funds for us to fight the UK’s biggest killer - heart and circulatory disease.

We'd like to invite you all to have your own Wear Red Day at work, school or with friends and family.

We’ll send you all the posters, stickers, a collection box and plenty of ideas that you'll need to have a great big Red day!

To get your free Fundraising Kit today, please go to bhf.org.uk/red

You can also download posters and be inspired by photos from other events.

National Wear Red Day is a great way to have fun and help save lives at the same time.

So who says Friday the 13th has to be unlucky!

Let us know if you're planning anything by posting a comment below...

Heart patient Julie’s recovery challenge

We always love to hear from our supporters. When Vicki Gilham wrote to tell us about her family’s sponsored walk in aid of the British Heart Foundation, we thought we’d find out more. Here’s the full story as told by Vicki’s dad, Pete.

“On Saturday 18 October this year, a party of 11 of us set off from the church in Patterdale to walk and scramble our way up Helvellyn in the Lake District via Striding Edge.

“My wife Julie had her mitral valve repaired in August 2007, and had set herself the recovery challenge to be able to climb Helvellyn again.

“We mentioned the trip to our son and daughters and they said they wanted to come with us. The children thought it would be a good idea to turn it into a sponsored event and set up a webpage on JustGiving.

“The climb was a very hard day for Julie. Without the continual encouragement of the family and numerous rest stops she would never have made it. The weather did not help with driving rain, strong wind and low cloud cover. After five hours of grit and determination, she finally made it to the top.

“There must be a God because as we made the final scramble up to the summit, the clouds lifted, the sun came out and the views were magnificent.

“We had originally planned to do the trip a week later but couldn't book any accommodation. That was the weekend of the Original Mountain Marathon and the terrible storms in the Lake District we all saw on the news reports!

“We ended up making over £1,500 for the British Heart Foundation.”

Have you organised your own fundraising activity or taken part in a BHF event? Post your comment below and tell us what you've been doing.

Designer love

Have you seen this year’s BHF annual review website yet?

The site has been garnering praise from the design industry for its superb typography and use of Flash.

Of course, it’s not just the sleek design that makes the annual review site worth visiting. It’s full of inspiring stories of the people who’ve made our year – both BHF supporters and those who benefit from our support.

You can also discover how our pioneering research, vital support services, fundraising activities and campaigns link up in the fight against heart disease.

Visit the 2008 Annual Review website

Some of the design blogs we’ve appeared on:
Computer Love
Form Fifty Five

Xhilarate
My Design Award

Heart Runners at the 2008 Great North Run

Take a look at our fantastic photos of Heart Runners who took part in last weekend's BUPA Great North Run, which we've posted on our Flickr online gallery.

Around 1,000 Heart Runners turned out for us and are hoping to raise more than £350,000 for our fight against heart disease, the UK's biggest killer.

Our thanks and congratulations once again to everyone who took part.

See the photos from the day now

Will new shock images stop smokers?

This week, graphic pictures will appear on cigarette packets in the UK warning about the dangers of smoking.

The UK is the first European country to introduce such images, which will include pictures of a tumour, heart surgery and a diseased lung.

The BHF doesn’t steer shy of using shock tactics to get our message across. Our recent chest pains awareness campaign includes violent scenes depicting the symptoms of a heart attack.

Maura Gillespie, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the BHF, said: “We believe the graphic picture warnings on cigarette packets will provide a further incentive for smokers to think again before reaching for their cigarette packets.

“There is evidence that they can help more smokers quit and prevent others from starting in the first place. Our ‘fatty cigarette’ campaign clearly demonstrated the value of hard hitting imagery.”

If you want to give up smoking, help and information is available at http://www.bhf.org.uk/smoking

Listen to our giving up smoking podcast

What you think about using graphic images to encourage people to quit smoking? Post a comment on the blog.

Got a story to tell? ....

....then we want to hear from you!

Whether you have experienced a heart condition yourself, or been affected by the experiences of a close friend or family member, your story could help change and save lives.

At the moment we're keen to hear from women, men under 50 and young people all of South Asian or African origin with experience of heart disease.

To share your story, you can complete an online form on our main website or email yourstory@bhf.org.uk for more info.

Blogging from the heart

We love the BHF blog, but for many people, blogging is an important way to help them cope with serious illnesses.

An article in the Guardian today suggests that for many sufferers, writing down the experience of an illness is as important as drugs or surgery to the healing process.

Louise Snape, aged 30 from Manchester, was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a potentially fatal heart disease, after giving birth to twin girls who had the condition. Louise says: Writing my blog keeps me sane. I think that without it I’d go mad. I can’t get out much because I’m not strong enough. I can’t even take the girls to the park. Doing this gives me something to focus on.”

As the old saying goes, a problem shared is a problem halved. Sharing experiences online is no substitute for medicine, but there’s the feelgood factor of possibly helping someone with a similar condition. Blogging also provides a means for other people to express their support.

The Snape twins, Katie and Lauren, are now three years old. Katie has had a heart transplant. Louise and Lauren are being assessed.

Louise continues: “We do get lots of feedback from around all over the world. People who read my blog really care about me and the girls. I can’t put into words what a difference that makes to my life.”

Read the article Online Lifelines in The Guardian

Visit Louise Snape’s heart disease blog

The UK’s biggest serial killer

Every two minutes someone in the UK has a heart attack, and Liverpool has one of the highest rates of heart disease in England.

In a role inspired by Hercule Poirot, BHF Professor Andrew Newby will investigate the biological suspects behind heart attacks while giving a fascinating insight into his cutting-edge research.

Saturday 6th September 2008
6-8pm
Quaker House
22 School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BT
Cost: £3.00

This event is part of the BA Festival of Science in Liverpool from 6-11 September.

One of the UK's biggest annual science festivals, the BA Festival attracts the best scientists from home and abroad, who reveal the latest research developments to a general audience.

Places are limited so please book tickets online or by calling 020 7019 4947.

He's got science in his blood!

As the nation's heart charity, one of the main focuses of the British Heart Foundation is investing in pioneering research.

We fund around 1,200 research projects investigating every aspect of heart disease - from causes and safer drugs to improving surgical techniques.

One of the BHF's projects is at the University of Birmingham Medical School, where a team of researchers are investigating human platelets. When blood vessels are damaged, for example if you cut yourself, platelets become sticky and plug the wound.

By learning more about how this happens, the team could uncover new treatments for strokes and heart disease.

Senior research scientist Dr Yotis Senis is one of the researchers on the project. He talks to the Guardian about what it's like being a scientist and what brought about his passion for blood.

Read the interview with Dr Senis in The Guardian.

Got something to say about heart research? Post a comment and let us know what you think.

Martyn's race against time - and Le Tour!

Martyn Jones, from Hertford, is riding the gruelling route of Le Tour de France ahead of the professional racers.

He set off three days before the event and hopes they won’t catch him up!

The money he raises will be split between ourselves and the Association of Young People with ME.

Always active as a youngster, Martyn loved most sports, however, in his late-teens he was diagnosed with M.E. For a very energetic person, this was extremely debilitating.

Martyn says: “You feel like a living dead person so to speak. Imagine having a really hard bout of flu, but for years and years.”

Fortunately, at 34 Martyn is now well over his M.E. and it was cycling that got him fit.

“I wanted to donate half of the money I raise to a charity that promotes sport and especially my passion – cycling. The BHF organise so many fantastic rides including London to Brighton, Oxford to Cambridge and the Norwich Ride, so they were an obvious choice.

"Plus, both my grandparents died of heart disease. I didn’t even get the chance to meet my granddad as he died in his fifties.”

Martyn is riding the exact same course as Le Tour de France participants, staying in the same towns along the way.

He is paying for the event out of his own savings. He hopes to raise £30,000 to split between both charities. Visit Martyn’s site at www.justgiving.com/letour4good

Heart disease - it touches us all

More often than not, pictures really do speak louder than words.

The latest film on our BHF video channel explains why our work really is important.

From our pioneering research to our life support training schemes, this moving video shows how heart disease can touch all our families.

See what you think. Please watch the video below, and then let us know your thoughts by posting a comment below...