- Area:
- South East England
- Programme:
- Awards for All England
- Release date:
- 23 7 2012
A Lottery funded charity in Surrey has seen a 500 per cent increase in heart screening enquiries since the collapse of high profile Premiership footballer Fabrice Muamba.
This month Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) has received £10,000 to continue to raise awareness about the screening technologies they offer free of charge to people who are concerned they may have a cardiac condition. CRY is one of is one of 80 organisations across the South East sharing £611,749 from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) this month.
According to CRY, around 90 per cent of cardiac conditions can be diagnosed through their screening procedures, such as the ECG test, the Echocardiogram test, the stress test and the 24 hour Holter monitor. They also say 12 people under the age of 35 die every week from an undiagnosed heart condition. In Italy, the number of cardiac deaths has reportedly fallen by 89 per cent since the government began funding heart-screening for elite athletes.
The “miracle” recovery of Bolton Wanderers footballer Muamba, whose heart stopped for 78 minutes after he collapsed during a Premier League match against Tottenham in March, has helped to raise awareness about cardiac conditions in fit young people. CRY estimates that in the month following Muamba’s collapse they saw a 12 fold increase in interest from callers and since this initial surge have seen a steady level of interest in screening which is 500 per cent higher than before his collapse.
Ben Robinson, Community Fundraiser for CRY, said: “As a charity we found that most people who knew of our work knew someone who suffered from a cardiac condition. Then for the first time people were contacting us who had no experience of it but wanted to know more. This increase in awareness is so important to the charity’s efforts to save young lives.”
Other projects across the South East supporting people with health conditions will also benefit from the funding. Dravet Syndrome UK based in East Sussex will receive £9,296 to develop their annual conference for families affected by the neurological condition, which causes severe seizures alongside other conditions such as learning disabilities, ataxia and autism.
The event will enable parents to obtain information and advice about the rare condition and discuss day-to-day issues with professionals who specialise in the condition. The charity was established over three years ago by three mothers of children diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome and one grandparent, who wanted to do something about the lack of awareness, support and medical research opportunities within the UK.
Brainstrust based in Hampshire will use their Lottery grant of £9,800 to deliver four activity days for carers in the UK who have a patient suffering from brain cancer. This will provide carers with activities to reduce their social isolation and provide a support network for the carers. The charity was established after Meg Jones from Hampshire was diagnosed with a grade II glioma in 2004. She had successful neurosurgery in Boston, USA in the summer of 2007, aged 21. Since then she has completed her MA, married and working on a PhD.
Also receiving funding are: Friends of Mark Cross School in East Sussex, who will spend their grant of £9,550 on hosting a week long community celebration event for the Olympics 2012 with gymnastics, Chinese ribbon dancing and basketball juggling taking place; Surrey SATRO, which will use its £10,000 grant to deliver basic construction trade skills and confidence building training to formerly homeless young people; The Justlife Foundation Limited, which will put its £9,960 funding towards volunteer-led sessions aiming to build relationships with local authorities for adults with complex needs such as homelessness and alcohol addiction in Brighton.
Today’s funding comes from BIG’s popular small grants scheme, Awards for All, which offers grants of between £300 and £10,000 to social and environmental projects that will benefit local communities and make a difference to the lives of those most in need.
Sacha Rose-Smith, BIG’s Head of the South East region, said: “It’s really positive to see how projects such as CRY are helping to inform people about rare health conditions and support those personally affected.
“Anyone who has an idea for a community project should visit the Awards for All website to see if a Big Lottery Fund grant could help to get their idea off the ground.”
See a full list of awards announced in the South East today
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