Portswood Waitrose donates £2,500 to Southampton cardiac charity

Simon Couldwell (Team Manager at Waitrose Portswood) and Mark Ind (CEO of Heartbeat)

Waitrose Portswood has donated £2,500 to a Southampton cardiac charity to support its mission to deliver the UK’s leading heart failure unit.

Heartbeat has received the donation as part of John Lewis & Partners’ Community Matters initiative – a quarterly charitable giving programme decided by Waitrose customers.

The money donated will go towards renovating the charity’s D2 Ward based at University Hospital Southampton so it can deliver better care and support to patients and their relatives.

As part of the charity’s fundraising efforts, Heartbeat will also be launching its Heart & Stroll event – a family and dog friendly 5km charity walk arriving at Southampton Common this summer on 29th June.

Team Manager at Waitrose Portswood Simon Couldwell said: “The Community Matters programme supports charities, schools and community initiatives to thrive. The chosen focus for the first quarter was health and wellbeing and we thought Heartbeat was a great fit for this. It’s a remarkable charity just on our doorstep that makes a huge difference to the Southampton community.”

Heartbeat’s CEO Mark Ind said: “We’re delighted to be part of the Community Matters programme. The donation will make an enormous difference to the cardiac care our D2 Ward can deliver to heart failure patients, pushing it towards becoming the country’s leading unit.”