What a five years we’ve had! To celebrate Beat SCAD’s first five years of operation, we released our five-year anniversary video. Here’s a round-up of some of our acheivements.
Awareness
Beat SCAD’s awareness raising activities have been wide ranging with some directed to a small audience and others reaching far wider audiences.
Establishing a social media presence is essential and Beat SCAD has developed a good following on Facebook and continues to grow on Twitter, Instagram and Beat SCAD YouTube channel (don’t forget to follow/subscribe if you haven’t already!).
Beat SCAD trustees, volunteers and members of the SCAD community have seized many TV & radio opportunities and shared their stories via local and national newspaper articles including: BBC news, The Victoria Derbyshire Show, ITV news, The Sun, The Mirror, The Daily Mail, The Express, The Evening Standard, The Star, The Edinburgh Evening News, The Belfast Telegraph, Belfast Live and The Daily Record.
We have delivered more than 30 educational talks to our target healthcare professional (HCP) audiences including paramedics, midwives, cardiac nurses and cardiac rehabilitation teams. SCAD information has also been shared at 10 healthcare professional conferences, and thousands of leaflets distributed to HCPs, SCAD patients and the general public.
Awareness raising activities led to opportunities to incorporate SCAD into the Myles Textbook for Midwives and NHS Mum & Baby app.
Support
Since the charity launch at the inaugural conference in Leicester in 2015, Beat SCAD has hosted two further conferences: in Leicester again in 2016 and then in Birmingham in 2018. Sadly, the conference planned for June 2020 was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The charity has organised four walks with the first held at Beacon Hill Country Park, Leicestershire (2016), followed by Bosworth Country Park, Leicestershire (2017), University of Birmingham (2018) and Coombe Country Park, Coventry (2019).
Beat SCAD film the talks delivered by researchers and guest speakers at our conferences and walks and post the videos to our YouTube channel to ensure information is available to the SCAD community and general public. Volunteers from the SCAD community have also been generous with their time and skills and provided additional videos to support people affected by SCAD. Over 50 videos have been posted during our first five years, with more than 30 being informational and educational talks from our events.
Beat SCAD trustees spend a huge amount of time supporting the SCAD community via online forums, email, telephone and in-person. Facebook support groups have grown to more than 1000 members and require daily administration to answer and moderate questions and add new joiners. The charity also receives a high volume of messages via our website and email and trustees have answered thousands of questions, introduced SCAD community members to others in their region and hosted and facilitated numerous local meet-ups.
Beat SCAD are proud of the support provided to the SCAD community. The charity is a provider of hope, is compassionate and determined to ensure patients never feel alone with their diagnosis.
Research
Research into SCAD is critical and impacts Beat SCAD’s entire mission: knowledge gleaned from the research helps with raising awareness and providing support. The SCAD community want answers and this requires much more research.
Beat SCAD is immensely proud to have awarded five donations to the University of Leicester:
Beat SCAD funding has contributed to research that led to the following key publications:
- A genetic breakthrough by UK researchers: Association of the PHACTR1/EDN1 Genetic Locus With Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection
“The blood samples led directly to the identification of the first genetic risk locus associated with SCAD.” Dr David Adlam
- The ESC ACCA SCAD study group: position paper on SCAD
- Data collected by the Leicester SCAD research team, led by Dr David Adlam, has been used in various analyses and collaborative efforts. Read more research publications here.
Fundraising
Over 90% of Beat SCAD income is from fundraising and donations. Other sources of income include sales of merchandise and event ticket sales; however, these funds are mostly re-invested to cover expenses associated with purchasing more merchandise and running the events (conferences and walks).
How your money was spent
For every £1 spent by the charity:
- 84.4p has been donated to research
- 12.8p has been used for other charitable activities such as event costs (venue hire, filming etc.), merchandise and promotional expenses
- 2.8p has been used to run the charity, such as banking, insurance and website costs
Why your donations are so important
The next 5 years (2020 – 2025)
During the summer of 2020, the Beat SCAD trustees reviewed their activities, achievements and ‘to-do’ lists from the previous five years and devised a strategic plan for the next five years to focus on key objectives within our mission areas of awareness, support and research.
Beat SCAD will continue to apply and develop our compassion, resilience, determination and passion to provide hope to patients, empower the community, build relationships and advance our mission to achieve a world that understands SCAD, where those affected are quickly and accurately diagnosed and never feel alone.
If you are interested in helping the Beat SCAD mission, please contact us.
