A North Yorkshire businesswoman is launching a fundraising drive for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in memory of her father who died following a heart attack.
Jackie Crozier has pledged to raise £11,000 after nominating the BHF as the 2022 charity partner of her company, Little Bird Made, which organises artisan markets in Harrogate and Ripon.
The founder and director has been inspired to support the charity after her father, tragically passed away when he was just 63 years old.
Jackie has set her target of £11,000 so that she is raising £1,000 to mark each year since her dad sadly died.
Jackie said:
“It’s 11 years since my mum and I had to make the difficult decision to turn my dad’s life support machine off after he had a heart attack. From that moment, our lives changed forever.
“If I can help the BHF raise money to gain a better understanding of heart conditions, which can help even just one family not to go through what we did, then I will be happy.”
“I want to help the charity raise awareness in North Yorkshire and of course raise as much money as we can. And what better way than recruiting my traders to help. After all, Little Bird really will get their wings next year.”
Little Bird Made have big ambitions for their charity partnership, which will include members of the BHF attending markets in Wetherby, Harrogate, Knaresborough, and Easingwold throughout the year, raising vital funds and offering lifesaving CPR training for both traders and members of the public.
There will also be a donation link on the Little Bird Made website for people to donate throughout the year.
A fundraising skydive has also been booked for April 2022, which will see 25 staff, traders and friends join Jackie in leaping from the sky above Yorkshire to help raise further funds.
Staff and volunteers from the BHF will also be on hand at Little Bird’s Christmas Markets this year, in Wetherby on 25th November and 4th December in Valley Gardens in Harrogate.
Money raised through the charity partnership will help the BHF continue to fund its life saving research into heart and circulatory diseases - one of the biggest killers in the UK.
This includes conditions like coronary heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia, and their risk factors such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
In Yorkshire alone, around 670,000 people are living with these conditions – and tragically, every 40 minutes, someone in the county sadly dies from a heart or circulatory disease.
It takes research to save lives, and some of the BHF’s ground-breaking work is happening locally at the University of Leeds, where they currently fund £22 million of research into better treatments for conditions such as heart attack, heart failure and type 2 diabetes.
Becky Beevers, BHF Fundraising Manager for Leeds and Wetherby, said:
“We are really looking forward to our fundraising partnership with Little Bird throughout 2022.”
“We can only fund our research into saving and improving lives thanks to partnerships like these, along with the generous support of the public. As we recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, this support has simply never been more needed.
“At the markets, we will also be on hand to teach attendees vital CPR skills. A cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time and knowing how to do CPR can drastically improve the chances of survival.”
Anyone interested in fundraising for the BHF, including local organisations that wish to partner with the charity, can contact Becky Beevers by emailing beeversr@bhf.org.uk or calling 07971 484539.
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