Fundraising at the heart of the community

New figures released by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) show residents in Devon and Cornwall raised an incredible £298,635 for the charity’s life saving research last year by fundraising in their community.

People across Devon and Cornwall have shown they’re all heart, undertaking countless fundraising activities – from the weird to the wonderful – in their unstoppable pursuit to raise urgently needed funds for the BHF’s life saving research.

Isaac Page, aged 6, and mum Ria in particular, went above and beyond in their efforts to raise funds last year, as they set about giving up chocolate for a whole month around Easter, and Isaac even managed to refrain when he was given an Easter egg by his friends at school. As a result, they raised an incredible £1300. Isaac said he wanted to "raise mega money for people with poorly hearts like mine".

Joy Petley, Fundraising Manager for Devon and Cornwall at the British Heart Foundation, said: “As the nation’s heart charity we rely entirely on the enormous generosity of our supporters to continue our life saving work. To raise such an incredible amount in 12 months is extraordinary. Pennies really do amount to pounds and so I’d like to personally thank every single person for their support. Your donations are vital to our research, and will help us to save more lives.”

Ria Page, who recently took part in DECHOX with her six year old son Isaac, said wanted to give something back to the great charity that has supported so many people. Isaac was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, which is a serious congenital heart condition, and underwent numerous complicated procedures, all of which may not have been possible without the British Heart Foundation’s research.

Heart and circulatory disease kills one person every three minutes in the UK. Thanks to the generosity of communities across the UK the BHF is funding research that has been, and is today, central to discovering new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat heart and circulatory disease. By 2020 the BHF will have funded half a billion pounds of life saving research, to help accelerate the fight against these devastating conditions which claim the lives of nearly 160,000 people in the UK each year.

Get involved in the fight against heart disease and be part of the 2017 fundraising revolution. To set up your own group or become the BHF’s charity partner email Petleyj@bhf.org.uk or call 07944823139.