An AI tool that helps predict heart attacks
Professor Charalambos Antoniades is developing an AI tool that can help predict heart attacks up to 10 years in advance.
Dean's story
In November 2024, aged 53, fit and healthy Dean learned that what he mistook for heartburn was in fact a heart attack. Thankfully, the devoted husband and father survived.
Dean, 54, Harrogate
Dean, a strength and conditioning coach, had been feeling unwell for days before his heart attack. It was around the fourth day of his symptoms that the fitness-focused father of 2, based in Harrogate, realised something was seriously wrong. After feeling too unwell to train one of his clients at the gym, he went home and called the NHS 111 number to get advice.
Thankfully, the operator recognised the symptoms straight away, and an ambulance was with Dean very quickly. Dean was blue-lighted to Leeds General Infirmary, where he had an angiogram and his blocked artery was cleared. Dean and his family were shocked when the consultant explained that he was very close to death. Throughout this challenging time and his recovery, Dean’s family’s support for one another got them through.
Today, Dean is gradually getting back into fitness, learning jiu jitsu with his son, and is grateful to be here for his wife and 2 sons - all thanks to the help of scientific research.
Why we fund lifesaving research
When British Heart Foundation was founded in 1961, a heart attack was often fatal. More than 7 in 10 people in the UK didn’t survive one. We didn’t know what caused them, and we had no effective ways to prevent or treat them.
"Not recognising heart attack symptoms left me close to death."
Dean
Today, with the help of decades of BHF-funded research, those odds have been transformed. We have lifesaving treatments and better detection and prevention strategies, meaning that now, more than 7 in 10 people do survive a heart attack.
BHF is the largest independent funder of cardiovascular research in the UK. But our work is not done. BHF continues to fund groundbreaking research into the prevention and treatment of heart attacks to help keep people with their loved ones for longer. Donate now to help fund lifesaving research and keep us beating.
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Every 3 minutes, someone in the UK dies from cardiovascular disease.
But with your donations, research funded by British Heart Foundation can help more people like Dean survive.
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Cardiovascular disease is one of the UK’s biggest killers. Your support helps us power lifesaving research that protects those you love most.
Pioneering research funded by your donations
CureHeart: Curing inherited heart muscle conditions
Professor Hugh Watkins and an international team are developing cures for these conditions.
Gene therapies to regenerate the heart
Professor Mauro Giacca is pioneering treatments to prevent, treat or even reverse heart failure.
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