Heart 'MOT' for Visitors to World Heart Day event

Visitors to a special roadshow in Great Yarmouth were offered a full health ‘MOT’ by nurses and therapists from East Coast Community Healthcare (ECCH).

ECCH’s Cardiac Rehabilitation team organised an event at the Marina Centre to mark World Heart Day. People were able to have their blood pressure and weight checked as well as their heart rhythm. ECCH’s Physiotherapy Service offered support for people with mobility issues, and advice was available from Smokefree Norfolk advisors to help people stop smoking.

Instructors were even showing people life saving techniques such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in case of an emergency where someone’s breathing or heartbeat has stopped. Organisations including Heart2Heart, Active Now, Sports Club 88 and Freedom Leisure also had stands.

Around 14,000 people are living with heart and circulatory disease in Great Yarmouth and around 19,000 have been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

ECCH Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurse Emma Gainsborough said: “This was an opportunity for people to stop and think about their heart health and it was great to see so many people interested in how they can improve how they look after themselves. Coronary heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK so we’re keen to get the message out there that there are lots of small things we can change in our lives to make sure we look after ourselves better.”

World Heart Day is organised by the World Heart Foundation to remind people around the world to take care of their hearts and promote measures to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.