Staff and students from Liverpool Hope University have been applauded for raising more than £5,000 for the British Heart Foundation.
The charity works tirelessly to find better ways to identify people at risk of heart disease and also to helppeople avoid the illness.
In recent years Hope has partnered with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) through its ‘Pack For Good’ campaign, which has been running since 2012.
The idea is simple - staff and students donate bags of unwanted items which get redistributed to the BHF’s 600 stores to be sold, with proceeds going into the charity’s coffers.
Around 10 bags would pay for a full day’s BHF heart nursing care. While 1,000 bags could help 40 young heart patients ‘gain independence, new skills and confidence’, the organisation says.
In 2021 Hope supplied no less than 376 bags - the equivalent of £5,264.
That represents a huge increase on previous years, with 2019 raising £770 and 2020 amassing £1,050.
Meanwhile Suzanne Moody, Sustainability Manager at Hope, says the donations not only help those in need, they also help to reduce the University’s carbon footprint.
She reveals: “The bags donated to the BHF by the Hope community represent around three tonnes of waste diverted from the landfill and which can instead be enjoyed by new owners.
“That’s the equivalent of 30,612 kg of CO2 emissions - which is a huge amount and important as part of Hope’s net zero targets.”
The BHF’s vision is a ‘world free from the fear of heart and circulatory diseases. We raise money to research cures and treatments, so we can beat heartbreak forever’.
It contributes £100 million of research each year into all heart and circulatory diseases and the things that cause them - including heart diseases, stroke, vascular dementia and diabetes.
It adds: “Research has given us machines that can restart hearts, the ability to fix arteries in tiny babies, the power to give someone a heart they weren’t born with, and so much more.
“But heart and circulatory diseases still kill 1 in 4 in the UK, they cause heartbreak on every street. And that’s why our work is as urgent and vital as ever.
“Our research is the promise to protect the people we love. Our parents. Our brothers. Our sisters. Our grandparents. Our closest friends.”
Speaking about its campaign with universities, the BHF adds: “We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank you all for your support during these challenging two campaign years.
“We look forward to continuing our work together with an ambitious target of raising £4.7m in 2022 to get back to our much needed levels of donations for our shops and stores.”