News

International Heart Valve Disease Awareness Week 2021 is one month away, and we need your support to make this the biggest Awareness Week ever!

Heart Valve Voice is delighted to announce the addition of three new members to our Board of Trustees. Professor, Simon Ray, Livvy Gosney and Phillip Read.

Since the inception of Heart Valve Voice, it has always been our intention to be a charity that promotes awareness of the condition, give a voice to those who have experienced it and improve the structures that determine the quality of care that patients in the UK receive. We have worked with policymakers throughout the past six years. Still, forming an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Heart Valve Disease was a watershed moment for heart valve disease patients in the UK. The report they have now published is a platform for policy change. 

Earlier this year, a group of heart valve disease patients were asked by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Heart Valve Disease to share their experiences of valve disease treatment with the group. During the evidence session, the patients were asked about detection and diagnosis of the condition, as well as access to treatment and the information they were provided with. Angie Martin was invited to share her experince, after being diagnosed with heart valve disease as a child and treated during the Covid outbreak

I decided to contact my MP after seeing Heart Valve Voice's #JustTreatUs campaign and thought it important to share my story and the stories of other valve disease patients. So that evening, I reached out to my local MP, Tim Loughton. I was really surprised to receive a reply in just a few hours, as I’m very aware of how busy MPs are. I was thrilled that he got back to me and wanted to help support the #JustTreatUs campaign.

The first week of June is Volunteers' Week across the country, an annual celebration of the contribution millions of people make across the UK through volunteering. The past 18 months have placed an extraordinary strain on the sector, but I have been overwhelmed to see how the country has come together to support charities that have struggled financially while the demand for their services has increased significantly.