HEART DISEASE – THE UK’s BIGGEST KILLER – TOUCHES US ALL

Fourteen months after a quadruple heart bypass operation, and coinciding with Rundle Brownswood 20 years' old birthday celebrations, I am running the Rotterdam Marathon in April to raise important funds for the British Heart Foundation. Will you please sponsor me?

To begin with – a few sobering facts.

• Heart and circulatory diseases are complex and unpredictable. They can affect anyone of any age. In fact every year, around one in every 145 babies is born with some sort of heart defect.
  
  
• Heart and circulatory diseases affect women as well as men. More than three times as many women die from heart attacks as do those from breast cancer each year.

Imagine, as you listen to the Today programme tomorrow morning on your radio, that news is coming through of a terrible plane crash at Bristol Airport, in which over 250 people are killed. How do you react I wonder? Probably a range of emotions. You would, perhaps, be shocked, bewildered, angry, sad, and almost certainly keen to learn the results of an inevitable enquiry. Yet in the UK alone, there are more than 100,000 deaths from sudden heart attacks every year. Do your maths. A planeload a day. That’s the scale of the problem.

I am one of the lucky ones, not from a plane crash, but having recovered from a highly successful quadruple heart by pass operation some 14 months ago. I have now decided to take on my toughest challenge yet – by becoming a Heart Runner in the full 26 miles marathon in Rotterdam on April 13th to help raise vital funds for the British Heart Foundation - the nation’s heart charity for pioneering research that saves and improves the lives of vulnerable adults and children.

Please be as generous as you can and help me to raise £10,000. The next two months are going to be very hard going indeed with many hours of gruelling road running training at the weekends in and around Bristol. Your most generous support will not only help me in these preparations but on the day itself. Your thoughts and generosity will get me round, I promise you.

As to you? You are still more likely to die of heart disease than any other serious illness, including cancer. It causes four out of ten deaths. The funds, which I raise, will help ensure that the British Heart Foundation can continue its vital research into the cause and prevention of this disease.

Now the easy bit! You can donate online simply by clicking this link: www.justgiving.com/alanrundle.

Alternatively, you can post a cheque made out to "BHF" to me at Rundle Brownswood Ltd, Leigh Court, Abbots Leigh, Bristol BS8 3RA. And don’t forget to Gift Aid your donation if donating by cheque by completing the form here and enclosing it with your donation. It's worth an extra 28p for every £1 you donate!

Thank you for your generous support.