Fixing broken hearts doesn’t come for free

Around 69,000 Scots are living with heart failure and in the UK there are hundreds of thousands

Today in Scotland around 60 people will go to hospital because of a heart attack, and well over two thirds will survive to go home.

Sadly, heart attack patients can be left with heart failure, which is a debilitating and frightening illness.

Around 69,000 Scots are living with heart failure and in the UK there are hundreds of thousands.

Heart failure doesn’t mean your heart suddenly stops. It means that the heart’s pumping action is impaired: not enough blood and oxygen are reaching the parts of your body where they are needed. This often leads to symptoms such as breathlessness and swollen feet and ankles. It can leave you feeling unusually tired. Feelings of isolation and depression can follow.

Until now, there has been no hope of a cure; no way to mend a broken heart. But with recent advances in regenerative medicine, repairing a damaged heart is becoming a realistic goal.

Mending Broken Hearts is the most ambitious research programme the BHF has ever carried out and our dedicated scientists are working to drive forward new treatments to mend a broken heart at the University of Edinburgh.

Our lab at the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine provides not just the equipment, but the perfect environment to inspire our scientists every day to continue their fight for every heartbeat.

Scientists like Zaniah González, a PhD student who’s working on cardiovascular regeneration at the centre. She’s excited by the fact that the research she’s working on is laying the foundations for future treatments for people who have heart failure and heart disease. She hopes that her work will one day lead to new treatments that save lives.

Edinburgh’s world leading scientists are also working with doctors so that the research findings can be translated into the clinic. That’s the beauty of our lab sharing a site with Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Professor David Newby, the BHF John Wheatley Chair of Cardiology, heads up the centre. He and his team are working towards the vital aim of developing stem cell-based treatments to repair heart muscle damaged by heart attack.

I’ve visited David and his team at the lab several times and I never cease to be amazed by their enthusiasm and dedication to the job.

I always leave with a sense of wonder at the amazing possibilities for mending hearts.

But this work is only made possible thanks to funding from the BHF, which is money that we need to raise. This is what powers the life-saving science that’s happening in our capital city and accelerates new discoveries.

It costs over £2,500 to run our lab at the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine for a full working week. And that doesn’t include the cost of staff.

David articulates the need for funding when he says: “We really need those donations to keep our ideas alive, to keep the science alive and, ultimately, to make our patients better.”

In the Edinburgh Appeal we’re asking businesses, groups, institutions and associations to provide £2,500, or more, to fund at least one week in the lab.

The money can be raised in any way – for example, by a donation, or fundraising or a combination of both.

By raising £2,500 you’ll be helping to make life-saving and life-changing treatments for a damaged heart a reality in the capital.

Please visit our appeal web page to find out more about how you can help to make state-of-the-art science happen on your doorstep.

This is Edinburgh’s appeal and, with your money, dedicated people like David and Zaniah can continue to work in the environment they need to find a cure for heart failure.

• Marjory Burns is director of the British Heart Foundation Scotland www.bhf.org.uk/edinburghappealor contact appeal manager Lisa Stafford on 01259 220451 or at [email protected]