Heart and vascular disease accounts for over 117,000 deaths per year in the UK, making it the commonest cause of death in this country. Lifestyle risk factors include high-fat diets, lack of exercise, smoking and alcohol consumption and need to be addressed early in life. But since heart disease presents later in life, young people often do not consider how their current lifestyle will impact their future health. Peer pressure, for example, can increase the chances of risk behaviours such as smoking and alcohol abuse. In an effort to better educate young people about heart disease and its prevention, I held a series of workshops at the Marist Senior School in September and spoke to 63 girls aged 13 to 14.

Education not only means knowing more, but sorting fact from fiction. It seemed like most of the information contained in the workshops was new to them. For example, what they thought a portion amounted to in the “5 a day” guideline was actually below the recommended daily

consumption of fruit and vegetables. Nevertheless, I was amazed at how interested and enthusiastic the students were, and astounded by their numerous questions. Most of them knew someone suffering from heart disease; some of them had even lost family members. I found that their personal experiences made them more eager to change both themselves and their families.

Because school children are notorious for eating high-fat snacks when on-the-go, I got things headed in the right direction by organizing a healthy snack sale at the school. The girls worked incredibly hard to make or bring in snacks made of fruit, vegetables, and low-fat ingredients. The snack sale was a success not only because it raised £80, but because it proved to these children that healthy food can also taste good. The proceeds from the snack sale will be used to provide medications for poor, rural communities served by the Ramakrishna Mission Medical Camp in Bangalore, India, a place where the incidence of heart and vascular disease has been steadily increasing over the last few decades. I would say that this project has revealed some important concepts. Namely, to reduce the incidence of heart disease in future generations, people must be made both educated and self-aware. This can only be achieved by getting people to take initiative and participate in the improvement of their own health.