February is Heart Month and local health charity Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS) is using the month to take to the road and bring their Heart Month tour to a number of locations throughout Northern Ireland. As part of the tour, the NICHS team will be at Victoria Square on Valentine’s Day offering free atrial fibrillation checks to the public.
Nadia Duncan, Donor Development Manager at NICHS said: “We are looking forward to bringing our Heart Month tour to Victoria Square next week. Our Health Promotion team will be there offering free atrial fibrillation (AF) tests. AF is a heart condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. If untreated, AF can increase stroke risk by up to 5 times.
“Over 39,000 people in Northern Ireland are living with AF and a further 10,000 may be undiagnosed so we are very glad to have this opportunity to bring AF testing to the local community. The AF test is a simple, one-minute finger touch test so we would encourage people to come down and see us to get checked.”
There will be lots of other things happening on the day as Nadia added: “We will be bringing our giant 10-foot, light-up heart prop for Insta-style photo ops – perfect for Valentine’s Day. We will also be giving people the chance to win a luxury stay at The Fitzwilliam Belfast via our prize draw.”
“This is also a great opportunity for us to get out and talk to the public and raise awareness of what our charity does, from our care services and programmes, to our health promotion programmes for workplaces, schools and community groups, and our support of ground-breaking research at local universities and hospitals.”
“The event runs from 10am to 5pm on Tuesday (14th February) on the ground floor of Victoria Square and we hope to see lots of people drop by, get an AF check, meet our team and learn more about the work we do supporting the local community.”
For more information visit https://nichs.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising-events/heart-month