February is Heart Month and this year, Natasha is backing a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Cymru initiative to get people across Wales to ‘Go Red’ and help the charity fundraise, and find the cures of tomorrow.
Natasha recently attended a reception at the Senedd on 12 February, where Welsh Government and BHF Cymru announced a new co-fund agreement for Wales’ National Cardiovascular Research Network.
Natasha Asghar MS said, “It is great to see the recognition of Universities and Health Boards across Wales through this new agreement, to attend the BHF reception at the Senedd. The opportunity for Government, business, and charity to collaborate on a cause that will affect most of us at some point in our lives is exciting. We all want to get closer to a Wales free from fear of heart and circulatory disease.”
“Many of us have felt the pain of heart and circulatory diseases, and I learned recently that heart and circulatory diseases affect around twice as many people in the UK as Alzheimer’s and cancer combined, so it is important to urge people in South Wales East to do anything they can to support. Whether it’s a dinner, a dance, an office dress-up day, a coffee morning or a red-themed quiz, going red is a great theme to have some fun with. I have already seen some great fundraising work from Wales YFC, getting Young Farmers Clubs across Wales to go red.”
Currently, there are around 340,000 people in Wales living with heart and circulatory disease, and there will be approximately 2800 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests this year. Around 18 babies a month are diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.
There are many ways you can support BHF Cymru this Heart Month, such as learning the skills that might just save the life of a loved one. In 2022, British Heart Foundation launched a new online tool called RevivR, which is free to access and teaches lifesaving CPR skills in just fifteen minutes using just a mobile phone and a cushion.
