Last year our friend Kevin was fitted with a pacemaker after having multiple blackout episodes, thankfully he is still with us today.

We all know someone who has lost someone, is living with a heart condition, not everyone knows they have one until they have a check up so its important to keep up with routine GP visits and if you have felt a little different than normal then make sure you go and seek medical advice.

Kevin and his group of trusty friends including me of course will be walking from Leek Town FC to Rudyard Lake Sunday 30th June in order to raise money for The British Heart Foundation and the upkeep of the in-house defibrillators at Leek Town FC. If you wan't to join us then you are more than welcome to do so, you'll have good company that's for sure!!

Heart and circulatory diseases is the umbrella term for all diseases of the heart and circulation. It includes everything from conditions that are inherited or that a person is born with, to those that develop later, such as coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, stroke and vascular dementia.

• There are around 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK - an ageing and growing population and improved survival rates from heart and circulatory events could see these numbers rise still further.

• Around 4 million males and 3.6 million females are living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK.

• We estimate that in the UK more than half of us will get a heart or circulatory condition in our lifetime.

• Around twice as many people are living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK than with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease combined.

• Heart and circulatory diseases cause around a quarter (27 per cent) of all deaths in the UK; that's more than 170,000 deaths a year, or 480 each day – one every three minutes.

• Around 49,000 people under the age of 75 in the UK die from heart and circulatory diseases each year.

• Since the BHF was established the annual number of deaths from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK has fallen by nearly half.

• In 1961, more than half of all deaths in the UK were attributed to heart and circulatory diseases (320,000 deaths).

Please donate if you can and please help spread the word, even if you just check in with your friends and family, lets help save lives together.