Stroke survivor Andy Jones will visit every single Premier League football ground in the space of five days to find out which team's supporters have the highest blood pressure and help combat the country's ticking blood pressure time bomb.
Andy, 47, had a stroke in December 2003 that was caused by high blood pressure. He was initially left with no speech and paralysis down one side of his body. Yet after a week in hospital and an even longer period of recovery back at home, Andy's dedication and courage paid off when he was able to return to full-time employment.
Andy now works as a stroke coordinator in the West Midlands where he helps fellow stroke survivors get their lives back on track following their stroke.
Andy is a huge football fan, hence the reason he came up with this brilliant and quirky awareness-raising idea. Andy has also been medically trained to take blood pressures and offer appropriate advice.
High blood pressure is the single biggest risk factor for stroke, around 40 per cent of strokes would be avoidable were people to tackle their high blood pressure.
Andy says, "We all get very emotional and stressed whilst watching football which has an impact on your blood pressure. This is particularly the case if you live an unhealthy lifestyle without much exercise and poor diet.
"My challenge aims to find out which team's fans have the highest and lowest blood pressures, and to see if there is a connection between their league position and their blood pressure as we reach the end of the season."
Kate Allan, Know Your Blood Pressure Co-ordinator at the Stroke Association says, "Andy's challenge is a brilliant, light-hearted way of communicating a very serious message.
"Our research has found that around 40 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women have high blood pressure and the majority of them are not receiving treatment or even aware of it.
"One of the biggest challenges is to make people understand that strokes don't just happen to older people. They can happen to anyone, at any age. The blood pressure test is short, painless and simple so we urge people to get tested."
It is widely acknowledged that males between the ages of 15 and 50 are least likely to visit their GP on a regular basis. As a result, many will have high blood pressure and not know about it.
The Know Your Blood Pressure Premier League Challenge is designed to target the aforementioned sector of the population and encourage them to visit www.stroke/plchallenge to find out where their nearest Know Your Blood Pressure event is taking place.
The Know Your Blood Pressure Premier League Challenge will take place from 11 to 15 April, kicking off at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and ending at Sunderland's Stadium of Light.
About Know Your Blood Pressure:
The Stroke Association runs the annual Know Your Blood Pressure campaign with partners such as Rotary International and the Ambulance Service to offer free blood pressure testing to members of the public.
The national Know Your Blood Pressure day for 2011 is Saturday 9 April, but blood pressure testing events are running throughout the year. In 2010, the Know Your Blood Pressure campaign reached a record number of people - taking 60,000 blood pressures.
Source:
The Stroke Association