BHF Help a Heart Campaign aims to raise £1.5 million pounds in June to achieve pioneering heart research solutions

British Heart Foundation (BHF) researchers Dr Elinor Griffiths and Dr Andy James and the rest of the team at the Bristol Heart Institute joined up with BHF fundraisers Paul Bancroft and Lucy Culverhouse to launch the BHF Help a Heart Campaign in Bristol this week (Monday 9 June) at Bristol University.

The British Heart Foundation 2008 Help a Heart campaign aims to raise £1.5 million to support pioneering and life saving heart research to help patients in Bristol. The BHF are asking local people to become a supporter and be part of the solution, and are looking for donations of either time or money to support this campaign. 

Dr Andy James from the Bristol Heart Institute is supporting the campaign.  He explained, ""The British Heart Foundation provides essential financial support for the work of the Bristol Heart Institute, including funding for two professors (of cardiac surgery and of the cell biology of atherosclerosis), ten research fellows, 22 PhD students and 78 distinct research projects.

"The Institute is a major international centre of basic scientific and clinical research excellence committed to improving the clinical treatment and prevention of heart disease. The Institute consists of over 200 researchers and clinicians at the University of Bristol and Bristol NHS Trusts.  Work at the Bristol Heart Institute is leading to improvements in cardiac surgery, in the treatment of heart failure and coronary heart disease and in the prevention of potentially dangerous disturbances in heart rhythm. Please do all you can to support the Help a heart campaign."

BHF is leading the way with heart research in the UK, and has been responsible for many of the key advances of the last four decades, ranging from making heart surgery safer to the vital development of statins. To achieve all of this, BHF relies on the generosity of local people to join their campaign during June.

The British Heart Foundation continues to invest nearly £100 every minute of every day on research to fight heart disease. Since the 1970s death rates from heart disease have halved in the UK, thanks partly to the medical advances made possible by donations of either time or money from members of the public.

Heart disease kills more people in the UK than any other illness, with more than one in every three people dying from heart and circulatory disease each year.  Sadly, chances are that most people in Bristol will have already been affected by heart disease, either personally or through friends and family.

The BHF needs local people to support the Help a Heart Campaign this June to save more lives, and help keep more families together. By joining the campaign anyone can be part of the solution.

Throughout June, there will be a variety of fundraising activity across Bristol and there are many ways to get involved. No experience is necessary; all that is needed is the desire to do something good to help other people and to beat heart disease. Whatever the fundraising idea, BHF can provide help and advice every step of the way. Support materials like balloons and posters will be provided free of charge.

For further information about how even an hour of your time can help a heart in Bristol, please contact local Fundraising Volunteer Manager Paul Bancroft on 01380 848 276 or to make a donation please send to PO BOX 3210, Urchfont, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 9AU