Llandeilo Rotary Club
ON Thursday, March 17, Llandeilo Rotary hosted their guest speaker Jayne Lewis of the Welsh Heart Foundation.
Jayne, the fundraising manager of her charity, reminded her audience that she was a guest speaker for Llandeilo Rotary 10 years ago.
Having worked in Toronto, Canada for seven years, Jayne promised herself that one day she would like to work for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and to her delight a later application was successful.
She informed Rotarians that BHF was founded in 1961 so the charity celebrated their 60th anniversary last year. Celebrations are continuing until June this year.
Celebrations in Wales have included the illuminations in red of both Cydweli and Neath castles and the Scarlets appearing totally in red.
Jayne outlined some statistics in that one in four people throughout Britain have a heart or circulatory condition and BHF looks at heart conditions, strokes and diabetes that are all connected with the circulatory system.
Today BHF deals with heart transplants, pacemakers, stents, portable defibrillator and valve replacements. It is estimated that some five million people are living with high blood pressure and some 4.7 million in addition are undiagnosed.
Most television viewers will have seen the most recent BHF advertisement that shocked a number of people. BHF acknowledged that this was the purpose in that it emphasised the seriousness of the subject.
Today BHF supplies digital videos via Youtube, you can download resources on BHF website, a free magazine “Heart Matters” and a BHF Heart Helpline are available.
Research is ongoing with tests being undertaken to growing a new heart under laboratory conditions, using stem cells for regenerating damaged hearts, correcting faulty genes that cause heart defects and the preventing of the rejection of transplanted hearts.
After a very informative talk a cheque was presented to Jayne for the British Heart Foundation by Senior Vice President Colin Jenkins.
Pictured, from left, are junior vice-president Nigel Haines, Jayne Lewis and senior vice-president Colin Jenkins.