A new drive is underway to bolster State funding for services which heart and stroke patients in Co Cavan describe as their "lifeline". Locals are being urged to lobby their TDs and Senators to sign a pledge to support Irish Heart Foundation patient support services - with funding vital to their continued operation.
It is estimated that 9,000 people in Cavan and 8,000 in Monaghan are living with cardiovascular disease. Local people are being encouraged to ask their local representatives to sign an online pledge on irishheart.ie/advocacy to ensure €1.2million in crucial annual funding is made available.
The Irish Heart Foundation currently receives just 8.6% of this to fund patient support services nationwide, which it says is inadequate to help the current volume of patients. Director of Advocacy and Patient Support at the Irish Heart Foundation, Chris Macey, says nationally, 80,000 heart and stroke patients are discharged from hospital every year, or one every seven minutes, in many cases to a bleak and uncertain future. He says these people cannot simply return to the lives they led before and desperately need the unique pathway of support services that the Irish Heart Foundation provides.
