Heart and circulatory disease is the UK's biggest killer. Death rates from coronary heart disease in the UK are among the highest in the world. Almost twice as many women die from heart and circulatory disease as they do from cancer. Each year 5,000 lives are lost in men under 65 years due to social class inequalities in coronary heart disease.
Someone has a heart attack every two minutes.
The British Heart Foundation is the largest source of funds for independent heart research in this country. About half of all deaths from CVD are from CHD and about a quarter are from stroke. Nearly all deaths from CHD are because of a heart attack. Around 300,000 people in the UK suffers from a heart attack each year. About half are fatal.