Today is World Heart Day and we have an incredible announcement for heart patients at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals.

The Kusuma Trust UK have made an extraordinary donation of £251,460 to complete not one, but two of our appeals - Life in Focus and Lifeline Lab - which are equipping the hospitals newly refurbished catheter laboratories (cath labs) with state-of-the-art imaging equipment.

Soma Pujari, Executive Trustee, said: "We feel very privileged to have been able to support the purchase of essential cath lab equipment for Royal Brompton and Harefield so some of the best doctors have the latest and finest technology available to be able to deliver the best care to heart patients.”

The two new cath labs will save and transform over 2,000 lives each year through minimally invasive procedures, which is vital as many of our patients are too weak for surgery.  Between the Kusuma Trust UK and our generous donors fundraising in and out of lockdowns, we have raised over £1.2 million to purchase this equipment that isn’t funded by the NHS - what an amazing feat!

Mark Bowers, Harefield Divisional Intervention Lead for cath labs and theatres, said:

The state-of-the-art equipment will lower the radiation dose and enable us to complete a wider range of examinations than we could with the old lab, essentially future-proofing ourselves against new procedures that could arise over the next five to 10 years.

Thank you to the Kusuma Trust UK and everyone who fundraised for the Life in Focus and Lifeline Lab appeals for making this all possible.