British Heart Foundation

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The British Heart Foundation is a charity organisation in the United Kingdom that funds research, education, care and awareness campaigns aimed to prevent heart diseases in humans. Their vision is of a world in which people do not die prematurely of heart disease.

The Charity was founded in 1961 by a group of medical professionals who were concerned about the increasing death rate from cardiovascular disease.

It is a major funder and authority in cardiovascular research, education and care, and relies predominantly on voluntary donations to meet its aims. In order to increase income and maximise the impact of its work, it also works with other organisations to combat premature death and disability from cardiovascular disease.

Contents

[edit] Activities

The British Heart Foundation focuses on three vital things:

  • Investing in pioneering research - funding around 1,200 research projects investigating every aspect of heart disease - from causes and safer drugs to improving surgical techniques.
  • Supporting and caring for heart patients - funding BHF Nurses who visit heart patients with all types of heart conditions in their homes. Providing defibrillators and echocardiograph machines for hospitals, emergency services and first-aiders.
  • Providing information to help people reduce their own risk of dying prematurely from a heart or circulatory related illness. They produce publications, videos and other materials for health professionals and the public including children. They also tell people about how to improve the health of their heart through public information campaigns, advertising and the media.


The British Heart Foundation sponsors two Television series produced by Twofour, "Kitchen Detective" and "Kid's Fit Squad". Both series encourage health eating and exercise with practical advice for families, and air on the Discovery Health channel.


[edit] Facts and figures

  • There are over 260 BHF Heart Nurses caring for patients across the UK.
  • Over 1,620 Heartstart UK schemes teach people what to do in an emergency. More than 1.2 million people have been trained by Heartstart UK in schools and the community.
  • The BHF invests over £100 a minute on research to keep the nation's hearts healthy.
  • In 2006 The British Heart Foundation had a gross income of over £100m [1].


[edit] Fundraising

The charity organises a sponsored skipping challenge through schools, in which the participating schools are entitled to retain 25% of the money raised[2]

Other annual campaigns include Valentines and Help a Heart.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ BHF Annual Report and Accounts 2006; Facts and figures
  2. ^ Jump Rope For Heart. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.

[edit] External links