Econ Engineering, which makes more than eight out of ten winter maintenance vehicles on the UK’s roads, has launched a new charity partnership with The British Heart Foundation (BHF).
The charity partnership will run from February – National Heart Month – right through until the end of 2023. It aims to raise £20,000 through a variety of fundraising initiatives including The Great North Run.
The money raised by Econ will help the BHF to fund life-saving research into heart and circulatory conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia and risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes.
It is reported that around 183,000 people living in North Yorkshire have been diagnosed with high blood pressure and 45,000 people are living with coronary heart disease. Every three hours, someone in the region dies from a heart or circulatory disease. In Yorkshire there are around 3,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year and sadly only 1 in 11 people survive these attacks.
Econ’s involvement with the charity is the result of its own personal tragedy, following the sudden passing of one of the company’s Managing Directors, Andrew Lupton, who sadly died from a heart attack last year.
Thomas Lupton, Andrew’s son, joined Econ in 2019 and continues to work as a Mechanical Design Engineer, helping to drive innovations forward for the company.
Andrew’s brother, Jonathan, who is now the sole Managing Director for the family owned and operated firm, said: “We are proud to be partnering with the British Heart Foundation and are looking forward to supporting with its ongoing campaign to Beat Heartbreak Forever.
“We want to do as much as we can to increase awareness of heart disease and raise vital money for the charity, in memory of Andrew.”
As well as raising money during the year, employees will have the opportunity to participate in a number of BHF-supported health and wellbeing engagement activities, to ensure a healthier workforce. The first of these sessions will start next week, with the BHF’s RevivR CPR training at Econ’s Ripon and Sowerby sites.
BHF Area Fundraising Manager, Leya Baksh, said: “We are honoured that Econ Engineering has chosen to support us this year.
“More than one in four people in the UK die from heart and circulatory conditions, so the money raised is vital for us to continue our research into better ways of diagnosing, preventing and treating patients.”
To donate to the company’s JustGiving page click here.