Why SR Timber is supporting the British Heart Foundation

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May 31, 2019/ Off Comments / in British Heart Foundation / by
Why SR Timber is supporting the British Heart Foundation

We’ve kicked off a summer of fundraising activities to raise much-needed money for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) – which will see the SR Timber team pushing themselves to climb mountains, run a marathon and, the hardest challenge of all, tuck into a hog roast.

OK, so the hog roast isn’t exactly challenging, but it will be a well-deserved treat after organising a community event in aid of the BHF.

So, why are we doing all this? And, more importantly, why are we doing it for the BHF?

Why the BHF?

The first thing to say is that we have always felt that, as a business, it’s important to give something back. Over the last few years, we have got involved with charity events where we have entered teams in some pretty spectacular fundraisers – such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or driving in a rally from the UK to Monte Carlo, taking in as many European countries as possible along the way.

Don’t get us wrong: these have been fantastic experiences, and we have raised thousands of pounds for different charities, including the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Rainy Day Trust.

When we looked at where to go next, we decided to have a change of tack and appoint a long-term charity partner and look at ways to do more-regular fundraising throughout the year – as opposed to one big event annually.

The first charity event we did – where two of our team climbed the highest mountain in Africa – was for the BHF, and this was chosen because it is a cause close to our hearts at SR Timber.

So when we all discussed who we wanted to choose as a long-term charity partner, the choice was obvious, as heart disease is an issue that is close to home for us as a team – with some of our team losing loved ones to the condition.

Meeting the BHF

Once the decision was made, the next step was to invite the BHF to our offices and talk about how we could support them. As you’d expect, they were delighted to have our support and had lots of ideas for a range of different activities we could get involved in.

What was most striking about the meeting was some of the facts and figures they gave us, which really hit home about the scale of heart disease: they told us that in the East Midlands alone, around 19,249 people devastatingly lose their lives to conditions including heart disease, stroke and heart failure every year.

Nationally, did you know?

  • Every three minutes, someone goes to hospital due to a heart attack
  • 2.3 million people are living with coronary heart disease
  • More than 920,000 people are living with heart failure
  • 12 babies a day are diagnosed with a congenital heart defect

The BHF wants a world without heart and circulatory diseases, so it is funding vital research to keep hearts beating and blood flowing. Each year, the charity funds £100 million to find cures and treatments for heart and circulatory conditions, including heart diseases, strokes and vascular dementia, along with risk factors such as diabetes.

It was gobsmacking and strengthened our resolve to raise as much as we could – but what really clinched it for us was the parallel between roofing batten and the heart. Like the heart is to the body, roofing batten – such as our Premium Gold – is pivotal to the health of a roof. And like the heart, you never see batten on a completed roof – but it’s still there doing an essential job, and quality batten can last for years and years.

We’d like to think it was written in the stars that we should support the BHF, but the simple truth is that it’s a great charity trying to tackle a disease that affects millions of people in the UK – which means that we all know someone affected by this. What better motivation do we need?

Keep checking our charity page to keep up to date on our fundraising or follow us on Twitter @SR_Timber_ for news as it happens. And if you want to support us, please visit our Just Giving page.