Rugby Cardiac Rehabilitation Service presented with £3850 from the Heart of England Co-operative Society

Shoppers at the Heart of England Co-operative Society have helped raise £3,850 for cardiac patients in Rugby.

The money was raised through sales of 5p carrier bags in the first six months of a scheme launched by the government from October 2015. Overall, shoppers at the Society raised more than £30,000 which is being shared among charities throughout the retailer’s trading area of Coventry, Warwickshire, south Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

Among those to benefit is the Rugby Cardiac Rehabilitation Service, which operates out of St Cross Hospital in the town and is run by the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.

Established in 1993 the service is open to people who have had a heart attack, undergone cardiac surgery, or suffered heart failure or angina. The key aims of the service are to help heart patients manage their condition, improve their health and regain their quality of life by offering them advice and information and signposting them to the various services on offer.

The service is manned by a core team of eight with a further 12 volunteers and mentors, each of whom have successfully fought complications from problems with their hearts.

Jo Holdsworth, Cardiac Rehabilitation Service Manager, said: “This money is incredibly useful. We work with patients aged in their 30s through to their 90s. Our service comes highly recommended by heart patients but we are completely dependent on donations such as this to help us continue to move forward and improve.”

Every penny from the Society will go direct into purchasing additional equipment for the service to ensure they continue to provide a first class service to their patients.

Ali Kurji, Chief Executive of the Heart of England Co-operative Society, said: “The Rugby Cardiac Rehabilitation Service provides a real lifeline for people at a time when they may feel lost or at a crossroads, unable to do everything they were able to do in the past.

“The service is a real saviour to many people every year and its team of volunteers, all of whom have been through exactly the same experience and emotions as those using the service, are living proof that there is life after a heart attack, or heart surgery, and it doesn’t have to mean of life as you know it.”

He added: At the Society we have been championing community and environmental issues for many years, so we are fully supportive of the carrier bag levy which will not only help reduce damage to our environment, but will help raise millions of pounds every year for great charities and worthy causes such as Rugby Cardiac Rehabilitation Service.

“Our customers helped raise a fantastic £30,000 in just the first six months and as it continues it will reap endless benefits across the community for many more years to come.”

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