£10,000 Grant Available for Healthy Heart Community Projects Across the UK

Community groups that are helping local people look after their hearts can now apply for a £10,000 grant from national charity Heart Research UK.

One grant will be awarded to each of the 12 regions in the UK, with the first five grants of the year being funded by instore donations from Subway® restaurants across the country.

The grants are available for new and innovative projects that promote healthy hearts and are aiming to reduce the risk of heart disease in their community.

Since 2001, Heart Research UK has awarded over 300 community grants, directly benefiting the hearts of over 70,000 individuals and countless wider community and family members across all regions of the UK.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the world’s biggest killers, and the aim of the Healthy Heart grants is to work preventatively within communities that may be marginalised or not have much access to health resources.

Projects should deliver health initiatives such as cooking skills, healthy eating and accessible exercise and should promote mental wellbeing and encourage people to be active. The grants are only available to not-for-profit organisations, including charities, community groups, voluntary organisations and sports groups.

The opening and closing dates for applications will be staggered across the regions, with Wales being the first to open on the 31st of January.

If you’d like to support Heart Research UK’s vital work into the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease, please visit www.heartresearch.org.uk for inspiration on how you could help.

Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive of Heart Research UK, said: “Through the Healthy Heart grants we hope to encourage people across the whole country to make healthier choices and give them practical help to do so. These grants are available to ensure everyone has the chance to benefit from a healthier, happier and longer life.

“We’re looking for new and innovative projects that really have an impact, especially if they aim to improve the health of at risk or hard to reach communities.”

To find out which region you’re in and the full list of opening and closing dates for applications, please visit: heartresearch.org.uk/ healthy-heart-grants

For more information, please email: healthyheartgrants@ heartresearch.org.uk

Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive Officer at Heart Research UK

The life of Di

A monthly column by Di Wade, the author of ‘A Year In Verse’

TCHAIKOVSKY’S FINEST

Well so much for New Year, which could’ve given third-hand boots a run for their money: And there was me imagining brand spanking newness to the tune of a whole new world - like in Aladdin. OK so not really. Moreover, my parents and I DID see a couple of people in the sea on New Year’s Day, by way of a first: The popularity of wild-swimming notwithstanding, I actually thought they were joking at first, especially since it seemed this pair were less interested in sampling Arctic breaststroking than photographing themselves immersed in a frigid Irish sea. It was enough to give one hypothermia just looking at them, and hastened our steps to Bispham Kitchen for a warming pot of tea and toasted teacake

Other than this diversion however, the New Year was indistinguishable from its predecessor. I continued coughing through January, till, approaching a trip to see the Nutcracker with a friend, I found myself facing a Clash dilemma, I.E. should I stay or should I go. We’d booked for the ballet last August, (like you do), when we also hadn’t envisaged still needing to wear facemasks. However, this was nothing compared to my current quandary. If I attended the performance, my friend would likely hear not a note, by which she could hardly be expected to be impressed. If on the other hand I stayed home with my hot water bottle, and kindly kept my cough to myself, I’d be letting her down, leaving her in the lurch, going back on an arrangement,--all the kind of things I abhor,--and she couldn’t be expected to be wild about that either: There’ve probably been international treaties struck in less time than I spent deliberating over the matter, and in the end, the decision was effectively made for me. The afternoon before the show saw me coughing so violently that I could only assume anyone in the vicinity must lynch me for making such a row amid Tchaikovsky’s finest, even if they hadn’t sold their house to go and see it.

So that was that, nut finally cracked. Sod’s law seemed to dictate that I’d be abruptly relieved of my cough the very next day. However, it continued unabated – through the pigeonfancying, plus new series’ of Dancing On Ice, and The Bay, and I swear was responsible for my remembering Burns Night so late that I had to make do with vegetarian haggis.

Thankfully however, it did finally cease, and luckily in time for my sister and family coming up, all the more so since this was effectively our Christmas, my brother-in-law having tested positive for Covid a week before Christmas Eve, meaning they all had to stay in London, my brotherin-law in the broom cupboard.

These were certainly interesting times. Festive celebrations in January? Who knew. However, apart from a lovely weekend, (even if my youngest nephew did trounce us all at Scrabble), here at last was something positively new for the so-called new year. Let’s have more of the same, the more the merrier, with knobs on, I’m sure we all deserve it.