Heart and circulatory diseases are the world’s biggest killers. They cause heartbreak on every street. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) raises money to fund research to keep hearts beating and blood flowing.
In 1961 the UK was facing an epidemic where heart and circulatory diseases were the cause of 51% of deaths. Concerned doctors joined forces with philanthropists to form the BHF and since 1964 they’ve awarded a total of £1.6 billion in grants to fund life-saving research to find new ways to prevent, treat and cure heart and circulatory diseases.
Heart transplants. Pacemakers. Stents. Portable defibrillators. Valve replacements. All breakthroughs the BHF have helped fund. Since the BHF was formed the annual number of deaths from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK has fallen by more than half.
Whilst the BHF have made great progress, there is more work to do. Every three minutes, someone in the UK, a parent, friend or child, dies from heart and circulatory diseases.
That’s tying your shoelaces. That’s waiting for the kettle to boil. That’s sitting through an ad break.
Despite heart and circulatory diseases killing one in four people in the UK, research to beat them is still hugely underfunded. Together, with support from the public the BHF have big ambitions to beat heartbreak from heart and circulatory diseases forever.
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