Charity goes back to basics to promote stroke prevention

know they have high blood pressure. There's a huge number of people that are walking around, not just with the risk of brain haemorrhage, but with the risk of many other conditions as well.

“We are going to help people understand how brain haemorrhage can be prevented through addressing lifestyle factors. One of the leading causes of preventable, lifestyle-related brain haemorrhages is hypotension - and that is something that people can help to change themselves.

“We want the messaging to be very simple, so it’s relatable but empowering. It’s not rocket science. We want people to look at the preventable factorslifestyle, high blood pressure, nutrition, sleep, stress, alcohol consumption - and realise that these are contributors to health conditions that can result in brain haemorrhage.

Acharity committed to changing the outlook for brain haemorrhage research and prevention is taking its approach back to basics to reinforce key health messages and help more people avoid stroke.

The Natalie Kate Moss Trust (NKMT) was founded following the death of Natalie aged only 26 after brain haemorrhage, and since that time the charity has dedicated itself to funding groundbreaking research into future treatment.

Working with the University of Manchester - of which Natalie was a graduate - NKMT’s funds are pioneering world-leading work into new therapies, including a project involving zebrafish and repurposing existing medication, which could deliver significant improvements in the survival rate after haemorrhagic stroke.

Now, while continuing to fundraise for a more positive future, NKMT is concentrating on the present and helping people to better understand some of the main causes of brain haemorrhage to help reinforce key messages around prevention.

Through content developed alongside academics and health professionals, and events to help promote health and wellbeing, NKMT will support people young and old to improve their own health and minimise the risk factors for stroke.

“We have always been focused on prevention and treatment, and now we really want to put more focus on prevention and reach a broader audience, to make a difference to people’s lives now,” says Fiona Moss, Natalie’s sister and director of NKMT.

“On average, in a population a third of people will have high blood pressure and 50 per cent of them won't

“For a lot of people, if it’s not directly related to them and their life, they’ll listen but then forget about it. But we really want people to engage and realise that this is something that applies to us all and is something that we ourselves can change.”

The refocus of the charity into health messaging is part of its new strategy, which wants to ramp up its efforts around prevention of the tragedy that impacted the Moss family in 2012.

“We don’t want to appear just as a charity - we want to appear as more of a B Corp, essentially a business that does good,” says Fiona.

“We don’t just want to be about looking for donations, prevention is very important in this, so we are refocusing to concentrate on that in ways we haven’t done so far.

“And then the conversation can feed into the knock on effect of that, so if they do donate, they are helping to fund the research into the prevention.”

To help with its fundraising, NKMT has launched a volunteering programme for ‘champions’ who can support its work in ways that are possible for them.

“We want to get more people on board, but if they don’t want to run a marathon or cycle the length of the country, then we would love them to run a comedy night or a pub quiz,” says Fiona.

“We’ve got some things in the pipeline over the summer, which will be about wellbeing but also will have a fundraising aspect, which is again bringing together the research - which the fundraising enables - and prevention.”

To find out more, please visit nataliekatemoss.co.uk.