Sunday 21 February 2010

A Few Facts

Just a quick Blog post with some facts and figures about the work The British Heart Foundation do:

Fact #1

Every 6 minutes someone in the UK dies from a heart attack

Fact #2

Every 11 minutes a Man in the UK dies from a heart attack.

Fact #3

Every 13 minutes a woman dies from a heart attack in the UK

Fact #4

Around one in 145 babies is born with congenital heart disease.

Fact #5

Every year around 141,000 people in the Uk suffer a heart attack

Fact #6

Around 86,000 people in the UK die of a heart attack every year.

Fact #7

Heart and circulatory disease claims around 200,000 lives in the UK each year.

Fact #8

Around 720,000 people in the UK are living with heart failure.

Donations for my @thebhf London to Windsor bike ride stands at £65 help increase it by clicking Here

Saturday 20 February 2010

Where the Money Goes

When it comes to Fundraising I think it's important to know where the money goes, what it gets spent on and also a bit about the Charity your fundraising on behalf of. So I set out this week to find out a bit more about my choosen charity for London to Windsor, The British Heart Foundation.

As I'm boring everyone on Twitter with updates on statistics about The British Heart Foundation I thought this would be a good place to tell you about what they actually do with the money. Obviously because of the name 100% of the money raised stays in the UK helping to fight the increasing number of cases of Heart Disease.

So during my research this week I found out what the following amounts raised are typically spent on by The British Heart Foundation.

£30 - Heartstart UK training Pack

For every £30 raised they can invest in a Heartstart training pack. The Heartstart UK scheme teaches members of the public what to do in a life-threatening emergency. So £30 could fund a Heartstart UK training pack to teach people these vital skills.

£124 - Fund a resuscitation training manikin

I remember these from first aid training courses at Scouts. Just £124 worth of donations 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 cardiac arrest.

£140 - Teaching life-saving skills in Schools

£140 could cover the cost of 'supply cover', allowing teachers the time away from classes to be trained as Heartstart UK instructors, able to teach vital emergency life support skills to their pupils.

£1,500 - Help save a life

The average cost of a defibrillator is £1,500. A defibrillator is a machie that can restart the heart by giving it an electric shock in some cases of cardiac arrest. When someone has a cardiac arrest defibrillation needs to be promt. For every minute that passes the chance of survival decreases by 14 per cent. The British Heart Foundation. provides grants to support the cost of life saving defibrillators.

With the London to Windsor my entry fee covers the cost of holding the event and it's up to those taking part to raise money for The British Heart Foundation. That's where anyone reading this comes in. They need donations to help to fund those items listed above and more to try and combat Heart disease.

So even if you can only afford £1 any money is a great help to them so please click on this link and give as little or as much as you can.

Thank you for reading and please spread the word to friends and family to help raise funds for a very worthwhile cause.

Sunday 14 February 2010

Into The Swing

Firstly I must appologise for my lack of updates the last couple of weeks. What with being back at work and spending almost all of last weekend in Lincoln I've not really had a chance to get on the computer and update things.

Away from the bike I've extended my original 2 weeks temping work up until next Friday giving me almost a full months money. Just need it to carry on or another one to come up so I don't stop now that I'm finally back into the working world.

Back to the bike side of things and I've really got underway with my training. I finally managed to get my Turbo Trainer set up yesterday and went for a ride in the living room. Makes it far easier to get on the bike, especially with the tempremental weather we seem to be having at the moment. Coupled with the side stepper Jen has bought for herself I now have a couple of different methods of excercise to keep on target for the 5th September.

Finally I'd like to thank Tink from Rants Online Pub for the £5 donation made this morning. It takes the overall total up to £50. hopefully once my Sponsor pack arrives from British Heart Foundation next month that should start to increase even more.

Finally a plug for my donations page, it can be found on Just Giving and currently sits at £50, so any additions you could make to that, even if it's only a £1 would be much appreciated. To donate then please click Here