Charity Racing Ahead To Help 15-06-09
CHARITY RACING AHEAD TO HELP
DONCASTER'S FIGHT AGAINST HEART DISEASE
A YORKSHIRE charity is linking up with Doncaster racecourse to support doctors and nurses in the fight against the town's biggest killer - heart disease.
The Heartbeat Appeal, which has raised more than £2.5m for hospitals across the county since its launch almost 20 years ago, is raising £30,000 to buy the latest generation of cardiac monitoring equipment for Doncaster Royal Infirmary.
The equipment will give staff in the cardio-respiratory department faster and more accurate information about patients' heart rhythms.
One of the key fund-raisers organised by Heartbeat is its annual race day held at Doncaster on Sunday June 14. All money raised at Town Moor on the day will be channelled into the new appeal.
Among the races is one named in honour of Howard Hughes, who lived in Doncaster and supported the charity until his death two years ago. He spent 21 years as a transmission engineer for Yorkshire Television but previously started his working life as an apprentice engineer at the former Doncaster trolley bus depot.
He had a great love of pop music and, in the early 60s, he opened a disco for teenagers by converting a cellar in one of the church buildings in the town to 'Cellar 65'. The disco, with an entry fee of 3d, proved a great success.
The charity bought a defibrillator for Doncaster racecourse on the opening of its new multi-million pound grandstand, but this is the first time it has raised money for the Infirmary. A defibrillator is a life-saving device that delivers a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to someone suffering from a heart attack in an emergency.
Despite medical advances, heart disease still remains the biggest single cause of death in the Doncaster community.
"Our aim is to provide first-class facilities and equipment to support the first-class staff who work in the NHS," said Heartbeat founder and patron, Alec Bloom OBE, himself a former heart patient.
"Since we started, we have helped many hospitals across Yorkshire to improve patient care, and we are delighted to now add Doncaster to the list of those we have supported.
"The new equipment will add a modern dimension to the diagnosis, care and treatment of people with heart disease."
Howard Briggs, principal clinical physiologist at the Infirmary, said: "An important strand of our work involves the use of a special heart monitor called a Lifecard, which records a patient's heart over a 24-hour period so we can assess their heart rate and rhythm whilst undertaking normal daily activities.
"The new machine will be able to download and analyse the results in as little as 10 minutes.
"It will replace our current machine, which is about eight years old, and the improved technology will enable us to assess more recordings and obtain more accurate information."
For further information about the work of Heartbeat and its forthcoming race day, visit www.heartbeatappeal.org
