Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Having taken up running at the age of 40, the health benefits have been amazing.  Having sadly lost two grandparents and my father-in-law to heart disease, I hope that I have made my heart healthier by running.

I will run this race in honour of them (I'm sure they will forgive me if I have to do a bit of hobbling too!).

Not everyone is as lucky as me and running the marathon for the British Heart Foundation is for all those whose hearts need help.

I'll be doing several training events along the way - so plenty of opportunity to get involved - most of the training events will have spaces available - so if anyone wants to join me and help me to raise money, get yourself fit and have some fun in the process - let me know! 

Joanne@Fillthegapmarketing.co.uk

Please donate whatever you can afford - every little helps as they say.

I have shown below how your money can help.

Thank you for your donation - every penny will help motivate me around the course - and ultimately save lives.

I am writing a blog of my experiences - view it here

Jo x

Every day, we save lives by funding groundbreaking research, providing vital information that helps people keep their own heart healthy and through support and care for heart patients and their families. We couldn't do this without your generous support.

£10 – Helps 50 children get more physically active

£10 could provide 50 children aged 7-11 with their own Let’s get active award pocket planner. This popular resource encourages them to get into the habit of doing at least 60 minutes of activity a day to help their heart health and rewards them with a certificate.

£30 - Heartstart Schools training pack

Our Heartstart schools training pack provides teachers with a specialised Emergency Life Support (ELS) skills package to teach children what to do in a life-threatening emergency.

£50 – Help fund vital lab work

Researchers regularly need to measure the levels of specific biological factors in tissue or blood samples. One assay kit, to measure the level of a specific factor in a series of samples costs at least £50.

£124 – Fund a resuscitation training manikin

£124 could fund the cost of a Little Anne manikin, a realistic adult manikin used when training people in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Performing CPR buys time and more than doubles the chances of survival for someone following a cardiac arrest.

£200 – Help find a cure

£200 could fund one of our young scientists for a whole day. We currently provide the salaries for around 500 post-doctoral scientists who work in research teams right across the UK on projects to better understand how to diagnose, prevent, treat and cure heart disease.

Our Heartstart schools training pack provides teachers with a specialised ELS package teaching children to do in a life-threatening emergency.

Continued research is vital to generate discoveries that can be used to design new or improved ways to treat heart disease. The current use of life saving treatments for heart attack patients such as clot-busting drugs to open up coronary blood vessels, and statins which can lower cholesterol is entirely due to previous laboratory research. The BHF provides over 50% of all UK cardiovascular research funding.

£600 – Fund a Heart Helpline Nurse for a week

£600 could help to fund a cardiac nurse working on the BHF Heart Helpline for a full week. Our cardiac nurses enable heart patients and their families to learn more about their heart condition and ways of managing it, to help them take 

control of their own health.