In aid of Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Registered Charity: XN47338, to whom have been beneficial to our family over the years, it's now our turn to give back to the community. 

With this the staff of Priority will be abseiling 13 Floors down the Europa Hotel on the 24th September, we would appreciate the smallest or BIGGEST of donations that will all go towards the NICHS Foundation.

This is how we use your money to help others:

Care Services

The Support Groups and Programmes you fund enable us to provide a listening ear, emotional support and practical advice or signposting to people and their families and carers affected by chest, heart and stroke conditions. Like Philip, the people attending the groups are able to meet with others in a similar situation, while benefiting from various activities based around continuing rehabilitation, prevention of a recurrence and reducing isolation. Isolation can be a big issue with long term health conditions and in some cases the only time someone leaves the house is to attend their support group. Your money helps individuals in so many physical and emotional ways. 

Prevention and Health Promotion

They say that prevention is better than a cure, so we also use the money you have entrusted to us to try to prevent these illnesses occurring in the future.

Your donations allow us to run a comprehensive healthy schools programme that aims to influence young people’s lifestyle behaviours at an early age, with the hope of a knock on effect on their family and wider community.

You also support our work with homeless people, who are particularly vulnerable to these illnesses. We run Health and Homeless projects, which focus on diet choices and healthier lifestyles, with many people including teenagers who have just come out of care or other institutions. We can only continue to deliver this programme because of your support and generosity.

Thanks to you, we are also able to offer health promotion services which include providing health information, talks and nurse health checks in the workplace and in the community. We measure cardiac risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels and where necessary advise people on how to adopt healthier lifestyles in order to reduce their risk of developing chest, heart and stroke illnesses. There have been incidences where a health assessment you have funded has provided an early warning to individuals who have then gone on to seek help from their GP.

Research

Your commitment to us means that we are able to commit to funding research into the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care of chest, heart and stroke illnesses in Northern Ireland’s hospitals and universities which will benefit the people of Northern Ireland. You are helping us to fund a number of exciting projects, including one which will look at risk factors and protective measures for congenital heart disease in newborn babies. We also carry out research to ensure that our care services programmes are backed up by clinical evidence, so that you can be sure your money is making a difference.

Campaigning

We also campaign at Assembly level on behalf of people and families who are impacted by chest, heart and stroke illnesses. People like Philip. Maybe people like you or your loved ones.

Thanks to your support, we have been able to pay the set–up costs for a screening service for Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) which is a genetic condition that causes abnormally high cholesterol and early development of Coronary Heart Disease. FH is a killer but thanks to you, the screening service will provide a proper database for FH and testing of families in every Health Trust area and will save many lives across Northern Ireland.

So from everyone at NICHS and all the people who your money helps across Northern Ireland, thank–you from the bottom of our hearts.