Three die every week in Westmeath from heart disease and stroke

Three people die every week in Westmeath from heart disease and stroke, it emerged this week, as Taoiseach Enda Kenny launched the Happy Hearts appeal in aid of the Irish Heart Foundation.
One hundred thousand people are clinically diagnosed with stroke or coronary heart disease in Ireland each year and in Westmeath on average three people die every week from these illnesses, the Irish Heart Foundation revealed today.
According to the national charity, 273 people are diagnosed here every day with stroke or heart disease, enough to fill two and a half double decker buses daily. When added to the estimated hundreds of thousands of patients already living with these diseases all around the country, it is not surprising that demand for the Irish Heart Foundation’s patient information services is fast out-growing the funding available to support it.
This May the Irish Heart Foundation is urgently calling on the public to give generously to their Happy Hearts Appeal supported by Heatons and Bayer by buying a happy heart badge for €2 this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, by texting HEART to 50300 to give €2, donating online throughout May at www.irishheart.ie or by organising a fundraising event.
The Happy Hearts Appeal is the charity’s biggest national fundraising event and more than 3,000 volunteers around the country will take to the streets and shopping centres of Ireland selling happy heart badges at €2 a piece this Thursday, Friday and Saturday (9-11 May). This year the charity hopes to make the appeal bigger and stronger than ever with opportunities for public and corporate donors to give throughout whole month of May by donating online at www.irishheart.ie or by organising their own fundraising event.