Andrew Mitchell MP has visited The Royal Town’s British Heart Foundation (BHF) shop at the Red Rose Centre to mark the 60th anniversary of the charity on 28th July.

During his visit, Andrew met Natalie, the store manager and Jo Dunning who is a regional manager. He also spoke to a 92-year-old volunteer who has been helping the charity for over a decade.

The charity has helped fund important research into heart conditions. In the 1980s BHF funded research helped prove the benefits of statins, which now save thousands of lives every year in the UK. More recently, research funded by the BHF has led to CE mark accreditation of AI technology that can help to identify people at high risk of a fatal heart attack.

The Covid 19 pandemic and last 18 months have been a difficult for the charity, creating significant disruption in donations and shop sales, which has in turn led their research budget falling. National revenue has fallen by 67%. This will have an impact on their work looking at inherited heart diseases, improved treatments for strokes and new ways to stop vascular dementia.

Following his visit, Andrew Mitchell said:

“It was good to have the opportunity to visit our local British Heart Foundation charity shop and thank the brilliant volunteers that help run the shop. The pandemic has created difficulties, but the team has been working incredibly hard to keep things going. The charity is currently looking for donations and is also offering a number of voluntary opportunities for Suttonians including positions serving customers and opportunities in the stock room. These roles can be really useful for those looking to build up experience or those with a few hours spare looking for voluntary opportunities.”