MAYBE there’s something in the water in the North West?
Or, more likely, it’s the usual contributing factors to bad heart health: smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and diabetes, that makes the region worse than any other in the UK.
The shocking TV advert includes the moment that sent a chill across the nation – Fabrice Muamba’s cardiac arrest.
New statistics show that Tameside is the UK’s heart disease capital, and Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Burnley also all feature in the top ten worst places in the UK for heart health. The figures have been released by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) on the launch of its Fight For Every Heartbeat campaign.
In the North West alone, around 10,000 people die each year from coronary heart disease (CHD), the UK’s single biggest killer.
Fabrice MuambaThat’s why the BHF is calling on people living in the North West to fight back against the disease and supporting its life-saving research. In a new hard-hitting campaign heart patients and a BHF Professor unite to hail research as the weapon needed to win the battle against heart disease. The shocking TV advert includes the moment that sent a chill across the nation – Fabrice Muamba’s cardiac arrest.
Professor Peter Weissberg, BHF Medical Director, said: “It’s unacceptable that people continue to die from heart attacks, regardless of their postcode.
“Coronary heart disease is not beaten yet – it remains the single biggest killer in the UK. We urgently need the nation to unite behind our quest to fund research to eradicate this deadly disease wherever it strikes.”
BHF Professor Mark Kearney, a researcher, cardiologist and ‘face of’ the TV advert, said: “I hate seeing the impact of heart disease on children, parents and grandparents - my experience in clinic is an everyday reminder that heart disease devastates too many lives.
“I’m searching for a breakthrough to put an end to the suffering. But medical research costs money and the BHF urgently needs support to rid the UK of heart disease and the misery it brings.”
The BHF is calling for people to text FIGHT to 70123 and give £3 to join the fight for every heartbeat or make a donation today by visiting bhf.org.uk.
