Valentine's Appeal
- 2.6 million people are living with heart disease in the UK.
- There are 191 BHF Heart Nurses caring for patients across the UK.
- A donation of £24 would fund a BHF Heart Nurse for an hour.
Valentine Appeal
With around 2.6 million people living with heart disease in the UK, the need for more BHF Heart Nurses has never been greater. This year the British Heart Foundation’s Valentine Appeal asked people to ‘Give a gift that saves lives’ – and thousands did.
Action
Although BHF Heart Nurses saw 50,000 patients last year, we still only have one Heart Nurse for every 12,000 heart patients. The 2006 Valentine Appeal aimed to raise awareness of the need for more BHF Heart Nurses and – crucially – to fund 30 more.
The public put their hearts into the campaign enthusiastically, posting special Love Notes in BHF shops, buying BHF Valentine gifts for their loved ones and making donations.
A number of MPs and MSPs visited our shops, and our corporate partners – including Boots, Debenhams and Selfridges, who joined us for the first time – helped by adopting BHF Valentine displays and selling themed products.
Celebrities including Graham Norton and Renée Zellweger got behind the campaign by signing Love Notes, others such as Lady Isabella Hervey modelled t-shirts, while the casts of Casualty, Holby City and No Angels sent in ‘dream nurse’ forms to help with PR activities.
The campaign also saw the first ever BHF Flirt Walk, when hundreds of hopeful lonely hearts got together in London’s Hyde Park for five kilometres of wooing and walking.
Impact
Within months the Valentine Appeal has exceeded its target and raised more than £1 milllion. Shops raised £318,000 – almost a 70% increase on last year, and beating their target of £250,000 by nearly one third. This magnificent effort is helping us to fund around 30 desperately needed BHF Heart Nurses.
The campaign received wide coverage across the media, including a double page spread in The Sun, which told the story of eight-year old Megan Smith, the real-life ‘Emma’ behind the emotive ‘Sorry Emma’ poster campaign.
Visitors to the BHF website during the campaign month of February increased from the previous year by 236% to well over 850,000 and research showed an increase – from 23 to 35% – in public perception of the desperate need for more BHF Heart Nurses.
Next steps
The Valentine Appeal in 2007 will build on last year’s success by continuing Love Notes in our shops and expanding this element in Community Fundraising.
We continue to raise money to fund more BHF Heart Nurses and 60 more will be in post by autumn 2006.
But we still need your help to meet the need for this vital service for heart patients. If you would like to help us fund more BHF Heart Nurses you can donate online at our website bhf.org.uk.