A New Year with Heart Valve Voice

The new year is always a great time for reflection.

For Heart Valve Voice, we looked back on 2017 with a great feeling of accomplishment. While we still have a lot of work to do in raising the profile of Heart Valve Disease and making the symptoms and treatment options common knowledge amongst the UK public, this past year we took some big steps forward in raising awareness of valve disease and tackling the inequalities of diagnosis and treatment across the country.

As part of our busy 2017, we attended numerous conferences all over the UK and Europe where we rallied the support of clinicians and professionals in the medical community as well as spread the word about our work. We also held policy meetings, hospital events, completed our first cycle ride from London to Paris, walked across the top of the O2, lobbied in parliament, worked with NHS England and continued to build our valuable network of patients and ambassadors.

Now that we have entered 2018, we are looking forward to another busy year full of events, campaigning and even more networking. We have already kicked off and started planning for a couple of major events this year including our National Photography Competition – Patient Portraits: A New You (which you can still enter here) and the upcoming European Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day that will bring together patient organisations from all over Europe to help raise awareness of valve disease.

This year will also be about our patient ambassadors and volunteers, celebrating them and encouraging others to participate. Some of the key events that we are planning that will include our patients and volunteers are a climb to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral to kick of World Heart Month on the 1st of February and we will be bringing back our cycle ride from London to Euro PCR in Paris again with the hopes of getting even more patients involved. The year ahead for our Patient Action Group will also be an exciting one as we develop new patient resources and hold a Patient Congress.

Or patients, ambassadors and volunteers are integral to important work that we do at Heart Valve Voice and we are always looking for more people to get involved whether it be joining our cycling team, helping at our testing events at Lancashire Cricket or simply sharing their story and experiences of valve disease, there is always something to get involved in. There are no prerequisites for volunteering with us, meaning you don’t need to have had valve disease, you just need to be passionate about raising awareness.

If you or anyone you know is looking for some exciting events to get involved in this year or an exciting cause to support please check out our website and get in touch!

Here is a great video summary of our very full 2017:

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