AFTER a huge drop in the number of deaths from heart attacks across the region, a leading charity is appealing for help to conquer the growing menace of heart failure.

While the number of heart attack deaths in the North-East and North Yorkshire has been nearly halved since the early Nineties, the number of people living with debilitating heart disease is steadily increasing.

It is thought more than 750,000 people in the UK are living with heart failure – and this is expected to increase dramatically.

Figures released yesterday by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) showed the scale of the success in reducing heart attack deaths in the region.

From 1994 to 2008, the number of people in the North-East who died following heart attacks fell from 7,976 to 4,820, while in five North Yorkshire districts – from Richmondshire to York – the total fell from 1,412 to 797.

The BHF has helped sponsor extra heart specialists at hospitals across the region over the past ten years – dramatically improving the treatment of patients awaiting heart surgery.

The Northern Echo’s own A Chance To Live campaign at this time was widely credited with helping to trigger a massive investment in heart surgery Now the charity wants to enlist the support of local people in backing an ambitious programme of research designed to find a cure for heart failure.

The Mending Broken Hearts project, which will be featured in a major television ad campaign from today, will involve stem cell research and developmental biology to work out how to repair or replace damaged heart muscle.

The aim is to literally “mend broken hearts” in as little as ten years’ time.

Part of the inspiration for the research project is the fact that regeneration already occurs in nature.

Some animals, such as the zebrafish, can regrow portions of their own hearts. It is thought it may be possible to make this happen in people, too.

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the BHF, said: “Scientifically, mending human hearts is an achievable goal and we really could make recovering from a heart attack as simple as getting over a broken leg. But we need to spend £50m to make this a reality, and currently the resources we need are simply not available.”

The BHF is urging local people to support the appeal by ringing 0300-333-0333 or by visiting bhf.

org.uk/mbh to order an appeal pack.