I thought it was about time I told you a few things about the charity we have chosen to support on our cycle ride.
The British Heart Foundation was set up 50 years ago in an attempt to deal with the increasing cases of death caused by heart problems. This meant extra funding for research, diagnosis, treatment, care and prevention of cardiovascular and circulatory disease.
Numbers of cases are now falling slowly, but you will be astonished by the figures.
Heart Disease is the UK's biggest killer, with over 180,000 victims in 2009.
It accounts for 1 in 5 male, and 1 in 8 female deaths including 28% of premature male deaths and 20% of premature female deaths.
The UK suffers 124,000 heart attacks every year.
1.5 million people living in the UK today have suffered a heart attack and 2.7 million people are living with Coronary Heart Disease.
In 2006, 266 million prescriptions were written for heart medication. This amounts to a cost of £510 million per year.
1 in 145 babies are born with Congenital Heart Disease. This is a heart abnormality, some cases are easily treatable but others sadly aren't.
Although the figures are slowly reducing, this is a massive amount of people, and a massive cost to our already overburdened health service too.
The British Heart Foundation is working to educate people on healthier lifestyles to help reduce the risk of heart disease. Anyone who knows me will know how much of an issue this is to me. I am a huge lover of the work Jamie Oliver does in trying to help people eat better food, cook healthier and understand the effect of what we put into our bodies. I'm not saying that unhealthy eating is the cause of heart disease, but looking after your body with your diet is hugely important. It reduces the risk of developing heart disease and can also protect your heart if you do have problems.
The British Heart Foundation's "Mend A Broken Heart" campaign is all about ground breaking research into finding a way to heal the heart once it has been damaged by a heart attack. This is an incredible research programme is something that would change the lives of millions of people around the world. The aim is to have treatment in place in less that 10 years which could allow hearts to "re-grow" the parts of them that have been damaged. That sounds incredible to me.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, my Nan (the one at the start of the ride!) has been fitted with a pacemaker. She has regular checks to make sure it is working properly, at the right speed and that her blood is flowing freely around her body. I am so lucky and grateful that she has been kept alive. Without work being done into researching the causes and the way to prevent and treat heart problems, she wouldn't be here. I feel so strongly about the work of the British Heart Foundation in keeping people alive and helping to avoid future problems. Heart disease has the possibility to affect all of us. It doesn't just affect the old, or the unhealthy. It can be a condition you are born with. If we can help with the work done by the British Heart Foundation by raising as much money as possible we could change lives, improve lives and save lives.
Please visit our justgiving page, if we all do a little individually, then together we could make a big difference.
www.justgiving.com/justgottarideit or text RIDE76 to 70070 to donate £5
For more information, have a look at www.bhf.org.uk it's incredible. I could have written so much more, and I hope that I've done justice to the cause in what I have written.
Thanks for reading.
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