Northern Ireland Chest Heart And Stroke

🇺🇸🌍 From California to Kilkeel and Cavehill! 🚭 Our tour of local schools has continued this week with our expert guests, Dr Bonnie Halpern-Felsher and Holly Lung, from the Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford Medicine's REACH Lab (aka Halpern-Felsher REACH Lab). They have been conducting focus groups with pupils and teachers, starting conversations in classrooms and gathering valuable insights to help adapt the You and Me Together Vape Free programme for schools here. Yesterday, we visited Kilkeel High School and today, St. Malachy's College, Belfast. Their valuable feedback is helping us shape a programme that truly resonates with and can make a real difference to young people and teachers here in tackling the issue of vaping and addiction. A huge thank you to both schools for welcoming us and to everyone who took part—your voices are making a difference! Together, we’re tackling vaping and empowering the next generation to make healthier choices. 💙 #VapeFreeNI #CaliforniaToBelfast #YouthHealth #YouAndMeVapeFree #NICHS

🇺🇸 This week, we were delighted to welcome world-renowned vaping experts from Stanford University, Dr Bonnie Halpern-Felsher and Holly Lung, to Belfast! We're working together to adapt the 'You and Me Together Vape Free' curriculum created by the Stanford Medicine's REACH Lab (aka Halpern-Felsher REACH Lab) to be used in schools across Northern Ireland. Today we conducted the first of our focus groups with local parents, and with students and teachers, at Bangor Grammar School, which will aid us to adapt this programme and make it relevant so it can be used in Northern Irish schools. Together, we’re striving for a vape-free generation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Reminder! 📣 Our Red Dress Fun Run which was due to take place today at Stormont Estate has been postponed until Sunday 30th March due to the severe wind and rain forecast for Sunday. If you have already registered, you do not need to take any further action. If the new date doesn’t suit or if you have any queries, please email events@nichs.org.uk We’re sorry that we have to change the date, but we look forward to seeing everyone on 30th March for a hopefully dry Red Dress Fun Run!

Could you help bring the glam to our fashion show in collaboration with our charity partner, Unislim? 👗 Unislim Gala Fashion Show 📅 Friday 28th March 📍 Balmoral Hotel, Belfast ⏰ 7pm-10.30pm Could you or someone you know: ➡️ offer hair and make-up services for the models for free on the night? ➡️ provide a stall in the room on the night? We currently have stalls lined up offering everything from candles, to fashion, to skincare! If you know of anyone who could help support with the above, please contact Ali in our Fundraising team- arodgers@nichs.org.uk Please share with your family and friends!

📣 Red Dress Fun Run Postponement 📣 Unfortunately, we have to rearrange our Red Dress Fun Run due to the severe wind and rain forecast for Sunday. The Red Dress Fun Run will now take place on Sunday 30th March at Stormont Estate and we hope you can still join us then. If you have already registered, you do not need to take any further action. If this date doesn’t suit or if you have any queries, please email events@nichs.org.uk We’re sorry that we have to change the date, but we look forward to seeing everyone on 30th March for a hopefully dry Red Dress Fun Run.

We’re delighted to unveil our newest ‘Hall of Hope' that we created for the stroke ward at Craigavon Hospital ❤️ This is the latest Hall of Hope in local hospitals across NI in our mission to inform, inspire, encourage and give hope to stroke patients and their families. We want to show stroke survivors and their families that there is hope after having a stroke and how we can help with their recovery once they leave hospital. It features just some of our clients who we think are heroes who have had strokes, who have gone through our services and here they give words of encouragement for anyone currently in the hospital ward. We’ve decorated the hall, physio room, TIA clinic and also created a cosy family room full of support and information so relatives can feel they are informed, reassured and not alone during a difficult time visiting loved ones on the ward. A huge thanks to Stacey and all the team in the Acute Stroke Ward and TIA Clinic at Craigavon Area Hospital for all your support making this possible! Southern Health and Social Care Trust

📣 Calling all Primary Schools! 🏫 🍎 📚 Want to have Fun and be in with a chance to WIN? 😍 We want YOU to host your own Red Dress Fun Run during February and have a laugh while you raise some cash for heart illness! ❤ 🥇 Plus, Every school that signs up will be entered into our awesome prize draw to win a £250 voucher for Podium 4 Sport Ltd 🥈🥉 There are also two runner up vouchers of £75 up for grabs, plus each winning school will receive an online Heartley’s Heroes’ Talk delivered by our Schools’ Health Promotion Team! A great way to encourage everyone to stay healthy and active and continue taking steps towards looking after their own heart health. Sign up your school at: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dkd4ebJa

📣 Only 7 days to go! 🏃♀️❤️ It’s not too late to sign up for the Red Dress Fun Run. Let’s make this the best year yet for heart health awareness in NI! #RedDressFunRun 🐶 Fun for all the family, including furry friends 🏃♂️ Run, walk, or wheel 5K 🦸 Dress red or get creative with a red costume 🕯️ Remember a loved one ❤️ Have fun & raise funds for heart services, research & prevention! A special thanks to our partners and sponsors of the Red Dress Fun Run 2025, MACE NI and Musgrave MarketPlace Northern Ireland Sign up now: https://lnkd.in/eSecyejy

Katie-Louise Goodfellow, 9, and her dad Derek are taking on our Red Dress Fun Run after selecting NICHS as their chosen charity for 2025! ❤️ Derek explains: “My mum suffered a stroke in April 2024 and sadly passed away in the May. During the time mum was in hospital we experienced first-hand the support, advice and guidance NICHS give people who have had a stroke, and their families, at a time when they really need it. We received support through the charity’s Family Support service and their Care team. A member of the team was in contact with us when mum was in hospital and explained the support and services they could offer her once she was discharged. We found this really helpful, and Mum was very positive about it all but sadly she didn’t get the chance to avail of that support.” The dynamic duo is passionate about raising awareness of assisted running and inclusion. Katie-Louise has a diagnosis of Quad Cerebral Palsy and Dystonia, she is a wheelchair user and non-verbal. The part of Katie-Louise’s brain that is damaged means she is unable to emotionally regulate herself and the family have found a way of helping her do this, and of supporting her wellbeing, by assisted running. Katie Louise and Derek have been busy clocking up the miles over the last year and a half with their running and rolling adventures, having completed 49 Junior parkruns, 47 parkruns, the Belfast City Marathon, 10 half marathons, numerous 10K and 5K runs, and everything in between! Thank you so much to Katie Louise and Derek for signing up! You can join them at the Red Dress Fun Run on Sunday 23rd February at Stormont Estate - https://lnkd.in/eSecyejy

We’re thrilled to that AG Paving and Building Products have chosen to partner with us for 2025! 🎉❤️ AG has a long history of supporting meaningful causes, and we’re delighted that their team has chosen NICHSas their charity partner for the year ahead. AG’s commitment to wellbeing aligns perfectly with our mission, and we can’t wait to see the impact of their fundraising efforts throughout 2025. A huge thank you to AG and their employees for making this possible! 🙌💙