The next park run in Nowton Park, Bury St Edmunds, is being taken over by the My WiSH Charity as it steps up a gear to promote its Every Heart Matters appeal.
It will be there with staff from the cardiology unit to discuss the appeal and atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. There will also be a special machine available called an alivecor where runners can capture a medical-grade ECG in just 30-seconds.
Now organisers of the run on April 21 and the following week on April 29, the latter being the 250th event of its kind in Bury St Edmunds which is also being attended by MyWiSH, are urging people to take part.
Steven Pretty, event director who runs the weekly events, said: “This would be a good time for our event to put something back into the community so we would like to support our wonderful local hospital in their current Every Heart Matters campaign.
“The run is all about our health and socialising and it’s something we all have in common and the running has almost become incidental to the event.
“We all hope that our running will help improve our heart health - but so many people are still affected by heart disease. I’m sure you know someone who has been affected.
“For me, both my mother and father-in-law are affected. So, please contribute if you can - and many thanks in anticipation.”
The run covers 5km and between 200 and 400 people regularly take part in the event.
To register log on to parkrun.co.uk which allows you to run in any park run event all over the county and you can also donate to the appeal via Mr Pretty’s website https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stephen-pretty
The appeal is aiming to raise £500,000 for a new cardiac diagnostic unit at the West Suffolk Hospital.
The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is investing £5.2m in developing a state of the art cardiac suite that will provide quicker access to more treatments, but the money the My WiSH Charity is hoping to raise will lead to the whole unit, which is currently fragmented on different floors, being brought together in one purpose-built centre.
If you want to support the Every Heart Matters appeal go to the website www.mywishcharity.co.uk and if you would like to donate to the appeal you can do so by going to
Justgiving.com/ehma or text EHMA17 £10 to 70070.
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