AN INSPIRING Bromsgrove man has chosen to support the British Heart Foundation during Remember a Charity Week which encourages people to leave a gift in their wills to a cause of their choice.
Alan Sanson, 57, chose to remember the BHF in his will after his younger brother Edward died from a cardiac arrest at the age of 30 in 1990.
Edward had been living with transposition of the arteries since birth – a condition where his pulmonary artery and aorta were the wrong way round.
Edward was just six weeks old when he was diagnosed with congenital heart disease at six weeks old and had his first operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Alan said: “Five years later, the year the BHF was established, a pioneering operation party funded by the heart charity was offered to my brother. “Being one of the first children to have this operation, it was a huge risk, but my parents knew they had to say yes to help save his life.”
Alan said in 1960 when Edward was born, only two in every ten babies with congenital heart disease lived beyond their first birthday but now, thanks to the BHF’s life saving research into the treatment and care of babies with these conditions, eight out of ten grew up to be adults.
“There’s still a long way to go.
“What happened to my family can happen to anyone but by leaving a gift in your will, you can make all the difference in helping fund breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart and circulatory disease.”
Visit bhf.org.uk/think for more information or contact Holly Patton at [email protected] or 0207 554 0312.
