Putting Theory Into Practice in Scotland Annual Report 2017 SCIENCE NOT FICTION

Putting theory into practice in Scotland Annual Report 2017 SCIENCE NOT FICTION. Message from our Message from Chief Executive Director of BHF Scotland

In Scotland we are currently funding over the generosity of supporters It’s been another impressive year Scotland’s Out of Hospital who may be vulnerable. Cardiac Arrest strategy, which £70m of cardiovascular research to help for BHF Scotland, and I’d like to start aims to save lives by equipping identify life saving scientific discoveries Despite these challenges, I am by thanking everyone who’s made 500,000 people with CPR skills which will change people’s lives in the delighted that we remain one it possible. by 2020. future. We’ve also trained 215,000 people of the most loved and trusted charities in the UK. And we’ve built on BHF- in life saving CPR since the launch of our Our recent relocation to funded research showing nation of life savers programme. Looking forward, there are central Edinburgh has ensured the relationship between poor opportunities for us to capitalise we are closer to Government air quality and cardiovascular upon our reputation as a world and healthcare leaders. I’m health. We’re working with These are the headlines of the leader in cardiovascular research extremely proud that we’re the Government and MSPs transformational work of BHF to extend our reach further, and Scotland’s largest independent across parties to build the case Scotland, working on behalf of to use our expertise to influence funder of cardiovascular for tackling poor air quality. the 670,000 people with heart decision makers on how best research, with over £70m We can only do this work thanks and circulatory disease. to tackle one of the UK’s currently being invested. to funds raised by our dedicated biggest killers. volunteers and supporters. But we still have so much more This exceptional level of to do, as each year nearly 16,000 We are relentless in our funding is evidence of the Much of our income comes people here die of heart and determination to do all we outstanding research that’s from our 75 award-winning circulatory disease. can to beat cardiovascular going on across Scotland, which high street shops and stores. disease and our incredible will save lives and cut costs for Their remarkable success In order that we can invest in achievements this year are set our partners in NHS Scotland. continues despite challenging saving lives, we have to earn out in the pages of this report. We’ve provided funding conditions, working closely and maintain the trust and I would like to say thank you for NHS boards to deliver with community fundraising confidence of our supporters to our researchers, supporters, services like House of Care, colleagues. And that means and volunteers. The new fundraisers and volunteers a personalised care plan that we can raise even more money Fundraising Regulator was in Scotland, we are grateful helps patients make informed for research to help transform introduced this year to set for everything they are doing choices about their conditions. the future for people with and maintain standards for towards winning the fight for heart disease. charitable fundraising. We every heartbeat. We’ve piloted local genetic welcome these changes and testing services for the Thank you for helping to make have been at the forefront devastating inherited condition that happen. of the sector’s work to deliver familial hypercholesterolaemia the highest standards. We (FH) to help identify those continue to listen to our at risk, with positive results. supporters and adapt, and We’re also working with uphold, our supporter promise Simon Gillespie, partners and the Scottish James Cant, to ensure we do not abuse Chief Executive Government to deliver Director BHF Scotland

SCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 01 Our research Our fight in strategy Scotland

In Scotland nearly 16,000 people die Scotland is fighting for every of heart and circulatory disease each heartbeat. Here are just some of year, and an estimated 670,000 people the incredible numbers that played live with its burden. So we fight on. a part in this year’s battle. To bring an end to heart disease sooner. To end the suffering for good. £12.2m £17.2m £2.7m Total invested in Sales in our BHF Total spent on research in the Scotland shops prevention, survival financial year and support in the financial year £70.2m £8.5m Total currently being Total raised through invested in research fundraising and legacies

people trained in life saving CPR to date through our nation of 215,000 life savers programme 02 BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION SCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 03 Research in Scotland

We are currently investing £70.2m Comparing e-cigarettes in research across Scotland to help us with tobacco break new ground in the fight against Dr Jacob George and his team at the University of Dundee heart and circulatory disease. The are studying the impact of pioneering work being undertaken by e-cigarettes on blood vessels our researchers is helping us transform compared to tobacco cigarettes. the lives of the thousands of people E-cigarettes contain nicotine which can be harmful to blood who are facing a daily battle against vessel health, so the team is these terrible conditions. Here are just determined to find out what some of the achievements from last year. the repercussions of using them could be.

Advising government on air pollution Professor David Newby’s BHF- funded project is a world first. With colleagues, Edinburgh- based Professor Newby (pictured left with patient David Smith), has explained the link between £1m grant for air pollution and poor heart- Glasgow scientists health and this year, used their Professor Mandy MacLean findings to advise the UK (centre) and her BHF-funded MSPs see our government on pollution and its research team at the University science up close role in reducing heart disease. of Glasgow received a further We’re dedicated to connecting five years of funding of over BHF researchers with policy- £1m. The team is dedicated makers within Scottish to finding new treatments Government. That’s why last for Pulmonary Arterial year 28 MSPs and five MPs Hypertension (PAH), visited researchers across a debilitating disease that Aberdeen, Dundee, St Andrews, affects over 7,000 people in Edinburgh and Glasgow. the UK. Professor MacLean is Researchers discussed their an international leader in her latest breakthroughs and the field of pharmacology and her role BHF plays in their steps work is crucial to ending PAH. towards ending heart disease.

04 BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION SCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 05 Tijana wins first The role of zinc in re-entry fellowship heart disease We are delighted to award Dr Samantha Pitt and her team Dr Tijana Mitić the prestigious at the University of St Andrews, Career Re-entry Basic Science who we help to fund, recently Research Fellowship. She is found a link between high the first scientist based in levels of zinc within cells and Scotland to receive the BHF several types of heart disease grant of £285,000, which helps including heart rhythm researchers return to the lab disorders. The exact role of after a career break. Dr Mitić, zinc in the heart and particularly Understanding broken at our Centre of Research how it influences calcium heart syndrome Excellence at the University release is not well understood, Takotsubo syndrome has been of Edinburgh, is carrying out but we are hoping that the described as an ‘adrenaline genetic research to prevent team’s future findings could Over £160,000 to protect storm’ in the heart, causing amputations in patients who improve our understanding of against heart damage the muscle to be temporarily suffer reduced blood flow. the regulation of our heart beat stunned. It is thought to be a and identify new ways to treat A BHF grant of £161,187 will Damage to vessels due to arrhythmias and heart failure. help researchers from the psychosomatic phenomenon, brought on by strong emotional insufficient blood circulation Universities of Dundee and to the extremities is a major Glasgow find ways to protect responses that change the shape and function of the cause of peripheral arterial against damage caused by disease, for which there are a heart attack. Dr Will Fuller heart. Dr Dana Dawson at the University of Aberdeen is using few effective treatments. It is is the first researcher in Scotland hoped that Dr Mitić’s project to receive funding from the BHF funding to further our understanding of Takotsubo will enable interventions BHF’s Translational Awards that prevent amputations. Scheme. He and his team in and improve diagnosis Dundee investigate drugs that and treatment. could protect the heart during a heart attack and crucially increase patient survival rates.

Total currently being invested in research in Scotland

BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £70.2mSCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 06 07 Professor Rhian Touyz is based at the University of Glasgow. Her BHF-funded team discovered that excessive free radicals, produced by the Nox5 enzyme, are partly responsible for causing damage and inflammation in small blood vessels. This finding could lead to new treatments and healthier blood vessels for the estimated 15 million people across the UK with high blood pressure – a condition that greatly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and also dementia. IT TAKES

PASSION.Professor Rhian Touyz, University of Glasgow

08 BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION SCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 09 Prevention, survival and support

Improving the heart health of the nation Genetic testing for HCM is vital if we are to reduce the burden Around 120,000 people across the UK are thought to be living of heart disease in Scotland and help undiagnosed with the inherited save more lives. That’s why this year we heart condition hypertrophic invested £2.7m towards supporting heart cardiomyopathy (HCM). HCM Learn to save a life patients, training people in life saving can cause a sudden cardiac arrest without warning, so identifying We are aiming to reduce deaths CPR and delivering projects to help those at risk is vital. Through from out of hospital cardiac people improve their health. the Miles Frost Fund, we have arrests by offering access to life awarded more than £720,000 in saving CPR training resources, funding to six Specialist Inherited including staff and partners BHF Alliance Cardiac Condition (ICC) Centres High cholesterol deaths at Glasgow airport. We have trained 215,000 people to date In order to win the fight across the UK to enhance genetic can be prevented in how to perform life saving against heart disease, health cascade testing for HCM. The Over 30 years of BHF research CPR through our nation of life professionals must have funding includes an award of has identified the genes savers scheme. access to the most up-to-date almost £200,000 to the West of that cause familial training and innovative ways Scotland Genetic Service to fund hypercholesterolaemia (FH), of supporting patients. Through two part-time Cardiomyopathy an inherited condition that Ban helps kids’ health our free BHF Alliance membership Specialist Nurses and a Data leads to high cholesterol levels Research has shown that scheme, we support over 300 Analyst to help ensure that more from birth. It is thought that passive smoking increases healthcare professionals across people receive the genetic test approximately 1 in 250 people the risk of developing coronary Scotland who work with people and treatment they need to in Scotland have FH and they heart disease, but in December affected by, or at risk of, heart prevent sudden death. could be at risk of early death 2016, a new law banning and circulatory disease. if they go untreated. We are smoking in vehicles while We provide learning and fighting for all immediate children are present came into development opportunities relations of FH sufferers to effect. Seeing the ban in place to enable them to deliver the be tested so they can be is an important step in our best possible treatment with treated before their hearts mission to protect children from the best possible outcomes are damaged. breathing in tobacco smoke. for patients in Scotland.

Total spent on improving outcomes for people with CVD in Scotland £2.7m 10 BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION SCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 11 Heartbeat of the community

None of the work we do would Science at the cinema be possible without the enormous This year BHF Scotland hosted two Science and Cinema nights, generosity of those who give their one at the Grosvenor Cinema time and donations to BHF Scotland. in Glasgow and another at the Here are just some of their incredible City trek is one Dominion Cinema in Edinburgh, achievements this year. of the toughest raising £1,250. Our researchers Martin is driven Our Glasgow to Edinburgh updated supporters on the by family loss Trek is one of the toughest latest leaps forward in heart We welcomed our newest walking challenges out disease research. fundraising group in Glasgow there, consisting of 100km East, chaired by Martin in 30 hours. In 2016, 224 took We recognise Donaldson, who was born part in the trek to raise over our Heart Heroes with a heart defect and has £98,000. It was an unforgettable This year’s local heroes include: gone through six operations experience and, for those David Saunders, who lost a to correct it, even surviving a who benefit from our leg during a heart operation cardiac arrest. When his brother research into heart disease, and carried the Queen’s passed away two years ago it’s a life-changing one. Baton in the 2014 Glasgow from an undiagnosed heart Commonwealth Games, condition, it reignited Martin’s Thanks to our partners Jenny Kumar, who is fighting to determination to support Our corporate partners do overcome scar stigma, clinical crucial research. excellent work fundraising and pharmacist Paul Forsyth, who raising awareness of heart is improving quality of life with Scarlett is a disease and its repercussions. heart failure, three-year-old big inspiration We’d like to thank Glasgow Robbie Hughes, who inspired Five-year-old Scarlett Dougan Airport, Lloyds Commercial huge amounts of fundraising, has been battling heart disease Bank, Kura, Inksters Solicitors, and Jade McWilliam a karate since she was born, but she Harper Collins, Clayton Caravan World Black Belt champion and her family go above and Park and many more for their who has overcome severe beyond every year by hosting support over the last year. heart problems. a fundraising ball. This year we invited Scarlett to our Glasgow Centre of Research Excellence to say thank you for raising £15,000 in 2016. Families like the Dougans inspire us every Total raised by people in year by raising funds for Scotland through fundraising life saving research. and legacies this year £8.5m 12 BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION SCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 13 Giving hope through retail

Our shops are integral in our fight Perth saves broken hearts against heart and circulatory disease. In December BHF Scotland’s Perth Home Store hosted our I was born with tetralogy Our 75 BHF Scotland shops and stores Social Science series. These talks of fallot – a serious heart have had a busy year hosting events allow BHF-funded researchers condition that people and raising much-needed funds to to speak to the public about sometimes call Blue Baby continue our life saving research. their work. Perth welcomed Fiona Plain, a PhD student Syndrome. I’m covered in from the University of Dundee. scars. I’ve survived a cardiac She explained her potentially arrest and had eight major life-changing research into an enzyme involved in heart operations. Sadly, my brother attack injury and techniques wasn’t so lucky and died of an to prevent tissue damage. undiagnosed heart condition two years ago. I’ve raised 75th shop in Scotland thousands of pounds for BHF The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Scotland because I know the Rt Hon Donald Wilson, joined staff and volunteers research is the most important to celebrate our latest path to progress. Children born Edinburgh shop opening with heart conditions now in Lothian Road in August. BHF-funded researcher are in a much better situation Dr Andrew Chapman and than I was, but there’s colleagues from our Centre still a lot more to do. of Research Excellence at the University of Edinburgh Martin Donaldson, 39, Glasgow were all on hand to show how the generous items donated to our shops help fund life saving research.

Total sales in BHF shops across Scotland this year £17.2m 14 BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION SCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 15 D

N A L T Our fight E H S

in your area D

N A L T E H S This map shows just some of the activity that’s been going on in your community over the past year.

Research Survival We are currently funding By offering training over £70m of research resources to the public at eight institutions. in how to perform CPR, we hope to dramatically increase the chances of Support someone surviving an out We support over 300 of hospital cardiac arrest. healthcare practitioners To date around 215,000 through the BHF Alliance. people have been trained This free membership in life saving CPR in schools, programme offers communities and workplaces professional development across the country since the and support for those who launch of our nation of life work with people affected savers scheme. And as part by, or at risk of developing, of our mission to create heart and circulatory disease. a nation of life savers, BHF Scotland is working with Grow income the Scottish Government We have 75 BHF Scotland and other partners to make shops and stores helping sure that half a million more to fund life saving research. people in Scotland learn CPR by 2020.

16 BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION SCOTLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2017 17 For over 50 years our research has saved lives. We’ve broken new ground, revolutionised treatments and transformed care. But heart and circulatory disease still kills one in four people in Scotland. That’s why we need you. With your support, your time, your donations, our research will beat heart disease for good.