The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a cardiovascular research

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

in the United Kingdom. It funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, and runs influencing work aimed at shaping public policy and raising awareness. In 2021, a study conducted by YouGov ranked the British Heart Foundation as the top charity or organisation in the UK by per cent of adults who hold a positive opinion of the organisation.

Foundation

The British Heart Foundation was founded in 1961 by a group of medical professionals who were concerned about the increasing

death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of d ...

from

cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina, heart attack), heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumati ...

. They wanted to fund extra research into the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of heart and circulatory diseases. Researcher 10

Leadership

Dr Charmaine Griffiths has been the BHF's Chief Executive since February 2020, succeeding Simon Gillespie OBE. Professor Bryan Williams OBE became the charity's first Chief Scientific and Medical Officer (CSMO) in December 2023, after Professor Sir

Nilesh Samani Sir Nilesh Jayantilal Samani, (born 19 July 1956) is a British physician who is Professor of Cardiology at the University of Leicester, and a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. He was Medical Director of the British Heart ...

stood down as Medical Director after more than 7 years in the role. The BHF's Board of Trustees is made up of up to 14 Trustees, and is a mix of medically-qualified and lay members: * Mark Ashton-Rigby * David Boynton * Dr

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* Roisin Donnelly * Professor Sadaf Farooqi * Mark Fitzpatrick * Karen A. Frank * Timothy Howe KC * Dr Annalisa Jenkins * Professor David Lomas * Sharron Pamplin * Professor Sir

Munir Pirmohamed Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed is a British clinical pharmacologist and geneticist. Since 2007 he has been the NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics at the University of Liverpool. Background He attended the former St Paul’s School and Peterborough Te ...

* Professor Brian Walker Karen A. Frank is the Chair of the Board of Trustees.

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

has been the BHF's Patron since May 2024, succeeding

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

Activities

The British Heart Foundation's main focus is to fund cardiovascular research, aiming to spend around £100 million a year funding scientists around the UK. They are currently funding over 1000 research projects.

Centres of Research Excellence

Since 2008 the BHF has been investing in Centres of Research Excellence. The eight current centres bring together scientists from a number of disciplines to work on research projects to beat heart and circulatory disease. The current Centres of Research are: *

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

Centres of Regenerative Medicine

In 2013 the BHF committed to funding three multi-institution Centres of Regenerative Medicine, investing £7.5 million over four years to fund scientists looking for new treatments for

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

BHF Clinical Research Collaborative

The British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Collaborative was launched in 2019, hosted by the British Cardiovascular Society. Designed to support the planning of high-quality national cardiovascular research, it brings together professional societies, research groups and patient and public involvement to better coordinate and prioritise research efforts. It also launched a fund to support the development of clinical research in cardiovascular disease, providing grants from £5,000-20,000, and all topic ideas will be considered. Other patients and public activities include: * Information – BHF provides information to help the public reduce their own heart health risk. It also provides numerous resources for patients to better manage their conditions, including the Heart Matters magazine and online hubs on risk factors such as blood pressure and obesity. * Campaigning – BHF influences government to establish policies that minimise the risk of developing heart and circulatory disease, including the funding of reports and research * Support – offering advice to those with heart conditions via their website, information booklets or heart helpline. * Life saving skills – the BHF currently offers free CPR kits to schools and is working with the

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their o ...

to distribute defibrillators throughout England. In 2020, The British Heart Foundation had a net income of just over £107m. In the same year, the BHF spent over £93m on funding cardiovascular research.

The Global Cardiovascular Research Funders Forum

The charity announced, in June 2021, that it had joined forces with leading cardiovascular research funders around the world to form the Global Cardiovascular Research Funders Forum (GCRFF). In addition to the British Heart Foundation, the Forum's members are: * The

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...

* (The Danish Heart Foundation) * (The Dutch Heart Foundation) * (The Swiss Heart Foundation) * (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research: DZHK) * The Leducq Foundation * The

Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is a Canadian charity dedicated to advocacy, education, and the funding of research surrounding heart disease and stroke. Nomenclature In November 2016, the organization re-branded as Heart & Stroke a ...

* The

Canadian Institutes of Health Research The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; ; IRSC) is a federal agency responsible for funding health and medical research in Canada. Comprising 13 institutes, it is the successor to the Medical Research Council of Canada. CIHR supports ...

* The National Heart Foundation of Australia * The National Heart Foundation of New Zealand * The

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is the third largest Institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is tasked with allocating about $3.6 billion in FY 2020 in tax revenue t ...

(NHLBI)

The Big Beat Challenge

In 2019, The British Heart Foundation launched the Big Beat Challenge, a global competition with a single award of £30m for the research team who proposed a transformational solution to any cardiovascular disease. The Big Beat Challenge was open to applications from any country globally, and accepted proposals in any research area related to cardiovascular disease. Based on a panel of BHF research-funding committee members and an International Advisory panel, a shortlist was finalised in January 2020 to include a robotic heart, a 'Google map' of atherosclerosis, a project harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and wearables to create a cardiovascular digital twin of a patient, and a genetic cure for inherited heart conditions. CureHeart, led by co-PIs Professor Hugh Christian Watkins and Professor Christine Seidman, which aims to find a cure for genetic cardiomyopathies, was announced as the winner of the Big Beat Challenge in July 2022.

Fundraising

BHF fundraising events accounted for nearly £54m of income in 2019-20. The BHF won the bid to be named as the London Marathon charity partner for the 2022 raise, aiming to raise £3m through the partnership to invest in clinical research. The annual London to Brighton Bike Ride is a flagship fundraising event, with over 16,000 cyclists and raising over £2.8m. The event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021, and was expected to return in 2022 with PureGym as the sponsor.

Retail Division

The BHF runs the largest network of charity shops in the UK, and generates income through online sales too. As of 2021, they run around 730 shops which include over 160 furniture and electrical shops selling up to 85,000 items daily. The BHF Retail division makes roughly £30 million every year.

Facts and figures

* Since the BHF was established, the annual number of deaths from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK has fallen by around half. * Heart and circulatory diseases cause a quarter of all deaths in the UK, totally around 160,000 deaths. * Around 1.4 million people alive in the UK today have survived a heart attack. * Since 1961 the UK death rate from heart and circulatory diseases has declined by over three quarters. * Healthcare costs relating to heart and circulatory diseases are estimated at £9 billion each year. * Over 3,800 ''Heartstart'' UK schemes to educate people what to do in various emergency situations (not just cardiac emergencies). More than 3.5 million people have been trained by Heartstart UK in schools (for example via the Saving Londoners' Lives project) and the community. * Every year 1 in every 145 babies are born in the UK with a

congenital heart defect A congenital heart defect (CHD), also known as a congenital heart anomaly, congenital cardiovascular malformation, and congenital heart disease, is a defect in the structure of the heart or great vessels that is present at birth. A congenital h ...

Criticism

Animal research

In June 2011, the British Heart Foundation was one of several health charities, alongside

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

, the Alzheimer's Society and Parkinson's UK, targeted by animal rights pressure group Animal Aid, in a series of newspaper advertisements urging the public not to donate to the organizations under the pretence of funding experiments on animals. The pressure group argued that 100 dogs had died since 1988 during the experiments. The BHF has responded to these criticisms by saying the charity only funds animal research after grant applications have gone through an independent peer review process and follows the three Rs principles when considering such grants.

Wealth screening

In 2016, the BHF was fined by the UK

Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. It is the independent regu ...

which ruled that the charity had breached data protection legislation by employing external bodies to analyse the financial status of supporters in order to appeal to them for further donations, a practice known as 'wealth screening'.

BBC News Online BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. It is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the U ...

reported that, "Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said donors had not been informed of the charity's practices, and were therefore unable to consent or object to them." She suggested other charities could also be engaged in similar activities. The charity's chief executive stated that "The ICO's conclusions were 'wrong, disproportionate and inconsistent ��We find the decision surprising, as earlier this year in June the ICO praised our data handling. Our trustees will therefore consider whether it's in the interests of our supporters and beneficiaries to challenge this decision."

References

External links

* * * {{authority control Health charities in the United Kingdom Health in the London Borough of Camden Heart disease organizations Health policy in the United Kingdom Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden Organizations established in 1961 1961 establishments in the United Kingdom