Free blood pressure checks at MACE Coleraine
Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS) is currently running a blood pressure awareness campaign due to the charity’s concern around the number of people living with undetected high blood pressure and the fact 1 in 2 heart attacks and strokes are linked to the condition.
As part of the campaign, NICHS will be offering free blood pressure checks at selected MACE stores, and they are urging the public to come along and have their blood pressure measured.
Fidelma Carter, Head of Public Health at NICHS says; “Over 280,000 people, or around 1 in 5 of the adult population in Northern Ireland, are living with high blood pressure¹ but there is a significant number of people, around 120,000 who have high blood pressure and do not realise it. Shockingly, this means at least a quarter of the adult population here live with high blood pressure.”
“Undetected high blood pressure is often known as ‘The Silent Killer’ due to the fact it rarely causes any physical symptoms or warning signs and is often only discovered after someone suffers a stroke or heart attack. The only way to know what your blood pressure is, and if it is high, is to have it measured and we are delighted to be working with our corporate partner MACE to give the public an opportunity to access free blood pressure checks.”
Fidelma continues; “The Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke Health Promotion team will be visiting MACE Coleraine on Tuesday 13th May from 11am to 3pm to provide pop-up blood pressure checks to the local community. We want to provide people with a convenient opportunity to get their blood pressure checked. A blood pressure check is simple and only takes a few minutes, but it really could help save your life.”
“If you can’t make it to the pop-up checks there are a number of other ways you can get your blood pressure checked. You can make an appointment with your GP or visit your local pharmacy which may operate a blood pressure monitoring service. You could also buy a blood pressure machine for home monitoring.”
Diane Anthony from MACE adds; “We are delighted to play our part in supporting NICHS’s blood pressure awareness campaign and to welcome our charity partner to our stores to deliver blood pressure checks. We are very proud of our long-term partnership with NICHS which carries out vital prevention work and this latest initiative is extremely worthwhile and could save a life. We would encourage our shoppers to pop in and avail of the service.”
For further information about the pop-up blood pressure checks and support about blood pressure, visit www.nichs.org.uk/highbloodpressure