The awful toll of heart disease

IT IS people that make Christmas, not the gifts. However, while many of us will be enjoying the abundance of food and gifts at home with loved ones this year, others aren’t so fortunate.

Tragically, heart and circulatory diseases kill 11,450 people in the

East Midlands and 500,000 are living with the daily burden of these conditions.

This Christmas, I’m asking you to think about the millions of families who have been torn apart by heart and circulatory diseases.

Up and down the UK, children are facing their first Christmas in hospital; parents are recovering from a life-changing stroke or vascular dementia diagnosis and families are facing their first Christmas without a loved one.

By donating to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) this festive season, you will be making a huge difference to help keep more families together. Donations to the BHF will go towards funding life-saving research into heart and circulatory diseases.

The BHF receives no government funding for research, so scientists in universities and research centres across the East Midlands hugely rely on donations to find new cures, treatments and ways to diagnose and prevent heart and circulatory conditions.

Please consider gifting a sprinkle of hope and happiness this Christmas and help us get one step closer to beating heartbreak forever in the East Midlands.

To donate, please visit www.bhf. org.uk/christmas Amanda Bringans Director of fundraising, BHF