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Chamber and committees

Congratulations to the British Heart Foundation on its 60th Anniversary

  • Submitted by: Kenneth Gibson, Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party.
  • Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 August 2021
  • Motion reference: S6M-00800

That the Parliament congratulates the British Heart Foundation (BHF) on its 60th anniversary; recognises BHF as the UK’s biggest charitable funder of lifesaving medical research into heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors; understands that, in Scotland, around 700,000 people currently live with such diseases; celebrates the vast range of successes that BHF has achieved, from the introduction of the world’s first portable defibrillator in 1965, to successful campaigns to introduce soft opt out for organ donations, and all secondary school pupils in Scotland now being taught lifesaving cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills; supports BHF in its current campaign to raise awareness and improve health outcomes for women with ischaemic heart disease, which it understands kills around 2,600 women in Scotland every year, three times as many as breast cancer, and looks forward to seeing this reflected in the Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Plan; understands that, while BHF normally awards around £100 million per year to new research projects, in 2019-20 it has had to redirect £50 million to other research and reorganisation due to the medical and practical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic; notes that BHF is reliant upon legacies, fundraising and profit from its charity shops, including the very popular one in Largs, and online sales, which together raised £9.7 million across the UK in 2019-20, even as the impact of COVID-19 has made it significantly more difficult to raise funds; commends all who volunteer for, are employed or funded by BHF, and wishes them every success in their ongoing efforts to improve the length and quality of life for those who are affected by heart and circulatory diseases.


Supported by: Karen Adam, Clare Adamson, Alasdair Allan, Colin Beattie, Miles Briggs, Siobhian Brown, Alexander Burnett, Stephanie Callaghan, Finlay Carson, Foysol Choudhury, Alex Cole-Hamilton, Natalie Don, Sharon Dowey, Jackie Dunbar, Annabelle Ewing, Fergus Ewing, Christine Grahame, Bill Kidd, Monica Lennon, Douglas Lumsden, Fulton MacGregor, Rona Mackay, Ruth Maguire, Gillian Martin, John Mason, Liam McArthur, Stuart McMillan, Edward Mountain, Audrey Nicoll, Paul O'Kane, Alex Rowley, Colin Smyth, Paul Sweeney, Michelle Thomson, David Torrance, Sue Webber