Take the stairs to help cure heart disease

Kind-hearted fundraisers are being challenged to climb the tallest university building in the UK to raise vital funds for the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The Take to the Stairs challenge aims to get people climbing all 390 steps of the iconic University of Sheffield Arts Tower which stands at 78 metres high.

The gruelling fundraising event will take place on Sunday 24 February 2013 to celebrate National Heart Month.

A number of local sporting celebrities will be amongst hundreds of other energetic participants who will be treated to breath-taking sights of the city once they reach the top of the Tower.

Retired English football referee, Uriah Rennie, said: "I am very pleased to be able to support the Take the Stairs Challenge. It is a great way of raising awareness of the great work the BHF is involved in.

"Along with many of my friends and sporting colleagues I will be taking on the challenge, you never know who you might meet on the stairs.”

The inaugural Sheffield Star Run was launched in February 2012 and was the brainchild of Stuart Heslington.

He was just 15 when he lost his father to heart disease and the inspirational fundraiser doesn't want other people to go through the same heart-breaking experience.

Stuart, who is now the Sheffield Major Events Committee Chair for the BHF, said: “This is a unique opportunity to set yourself an exciting challenge in an iconic building to raise money which will help save lives.”

This year's event raised more than £4,000 and organisers are hoping to double that figure this time.

Dr Timothy Chico, senior lecturer from the University's Department of Cardiovascular Science and honorary consultant at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: "This is a great way for people to raise money for research into heart disease, while at the same time reducing their own risk of heart problems in later life.

"Although we've made great breakthroughs in understanding how to prevent and treat heart disease, it is still the biggest single cause of death in the UK, and we need more research to find new treatments. All of us whose research is supported by BHF are very grateful for the amazing efforts made by their fundraisers and volunteers."

The British Heart Foundation funds Dr Chico's research in Sheffield. He's investigating how blood vessels grow and form in the zebrafish, to give us clues about how we might stimulate new healthy blood vessels to grow in people with coronary heart disease.

The zebrafish is also the inspiration of the BHF's Mending Broken Hearts Appeal, which is funding cutting-edge research to help the heart repair itself after heart attack. Currently there is no way to repair the human heart when it's damaged, whereas the zebrafish can re-grow up to 20 per cent of its own heart in a matter of weeks. If scientists can find a way to make the human heart behave more like a zebrafish heart, we will be able to mend broken hearts and save lives.

For more information about the event contact 0121 661 5100 or 07973469798.

Alternatively email frsupport@bhf.org.uk or visit bhf.org.uk/takethestairschallenge to register.

Additional information The University of Sheffield

With nearly 25,000 students from 125 countries, the University of Sheffield is one of the UK’s leading and largest universities. A member of the Russell Group, it has a reputation for world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. The University of Sheffield has been named University of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards for its exceptional performance in research, teaching, access and business performance. In addition, the University has won four Queen’s Anniversary Prizes (1998, 2000, 2002, 2007). These prestigious awards recognise outstanding contributions by universities and colleges to the United Kingdom’s intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield also boasts five Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and many of its alumni have gone on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence around the world. The University’s research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, Boots, AstraZeneca, GSK, ICI, Slazenger, and many more household names, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. The University has well-established partnerships with a number of universities and major corporations, both in the UK and abroad. Its partnership with Leeds and York Universities in the White Rose Consortium has a combined research power greater than that of either Oxford or Cambridge.