FIVE daredevil cardiac nurses are for the high jump: they’ll leap out of a plane at 10,000 feet to raise money for the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The team includes nurses from Liskeard Community Hospital, St Austell Community Hospital, and the Camborne Redruth Community Hospital.

The fundraising jump, to take place on September 4 at Perranporth, has been organised by Paul Casey, 50, from Callington, who works at Liskeard Hospital.

Paul said: ‘We all wanted to support the great work the BHF does and, at the same time, take on a challenge that would make people feel like we deserved the money they were donating.

‘I’m sure it will be a lot of fun, but at the moment we’re just trying to block it out and not think too much about it.’

In his role as a cardiac nurse, Paul is part of a team who provide specialist care to people after they have had heart surgery or suffered a heart attack.

He works with patients in the community, helping them with their medication and devising rehabilitation programmes to aid their recovery.

Paul and the other cardiac nurses are supported by the BHF who provide information, resources, and training opportunities to help them provide the best possible care to heart patients. 

Paul said: ‘Having a heart attack is a life-changing event which can be traumatic and scary.

Support

‘Our job is to provide the care and support people need in order to improve and get better.

‘By putting them in a position to manage their condition, we can take away the fear and give them their confidence back.’

Stacey Smalley, fundraising manager for the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘Paul and his colleagues already do a wonderful job caring for heart patients in Cornwall. But by taking on this challenge they’re going even further and helping to power the BHF’s life-saving research.

‘As a charity we rely on people’s fundraising efforts to help fund the science that will find new breakthroughs to help everybody who suffers with a heart problem – from babies born with heart defects, to the millions of adults affected by heart disease.’

In Cornwall there are around 67,500 people living with heart or circulatory disease.

The BHF is the UK’s largest independent funder of heart research.

Anyone wishing to donate to Paul’s fundraising efforts can do so at just

giving.com/braveheart

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