British Heart Foundation (BHF) Wales has been appointed the Official Charity of The 2023 Senior Open Presented by Rolex, which takes place at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club from July 27-30.
The BHF is the largest independent funder of research into heart and circulatory diseases in the UK and over the past 60 years has been instrumental in countless lifesaving discoveries. BHF-funded research has contributed to improving survival from heart transplants, the development of pacemakers, improving the way that heart attacks are treated, and the rollout of genetic testing for inherited heart conditions. The BHF’s research is funded entirely by donations from the public.
The charity has teamed up with The Senior Open Presented by Rolex to raise money at Royal Porthcawl this year, with funds from the Long Putt Challenge in the spectator village being pledged to the BHF while also offering spectators to enter a raffle for the chance to win a pair of tickets to the Ryder Cup, which takes place at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, Italy, later this year.
Rhodri Thomas, Head of BHF Cymru, said: “We’re delighted to be named official charity partner for the 2023 and 2024 Senior Open Championship, and we want to thank the PGA European Tour for their ongoing support.
“Heart and circulatory disease are the world’s biggest killers and we hope this partnership will help us raise an incredible amount of money to accelerate research into new treatments and cures.”
In addition to the Long Putt Challenge, BHF will be offering spectators the opportunity to learn CPR through their free, interactive, online CPR training course, RevivR. In just 15 minutes, people can learn how to save a life and receive their very own CPR certificate.
CPR is an emergency lifesaving procedure, performed when the heart stops beating. Each year over 30,000 people have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the UK, with less than one in ten surviving – giving CPR and using a defibrillator can more than double someone’s chance of survival. BHF will also be talking about the importance of registering defibrillators on The Circuit, the national defibrillator network.
Edward Kitson, Championship Director of The Senior Open Presented by Rolex, said: “We are delighted to welcome BHF Wales to this year’s Senior Open Presented by Rolex.
“They are a charity who have touched millions of peoples’ lives over the last six decades and their pioneering research into heart and circulatory diseases is incredibly important. We hope to be able to raise a meaningful amount of money this year at Royal Porthcawl, adding to the work we achieved together with BHF Scotland at Gleneagles in 2022.”
There are around 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK – an ageing and growing population and improved survival rates from heart and circulatory events could see these numbers rise still further.
