WOMEN’S HEARTBEAT
Charity No. 1196851
Trustees’ Report and Unaudited Accounts
31[st] March 2023
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Women’s Heartbeat
Contents
| Pages | |
|---|---|
| Trustees’ Annual Report | 3 - 7 |
| Statement of Financial Activities | 8 |
| Balance Sheet | 9 |
| Notes to the Accounts | 10 - 12 |
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Women’s Heartbeat
Trustees’ Annual Report
The trustees present their report with the unaudited financial statements of the charity for the period ended 31[st] March 2023.
Reference and Administrative Details
Charity No. 1196851
Principal Office
The Old Farm Gagingwell Enstone Chipping Norton OX7 4EF
Registered Office
The Old Farm Gagingwell Enstone Chipping Norton OX7 4EF
Directors and Trustees
The following Trustees served during the period:
Barbara Shaw Caron Curragh Dr. Melanie Rein
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Women’s Heartbeat
Objectives and Activities
Women’s Heartbeat’s activities focus on our three main objectives: 1) raising awareness of women’s heart disease and the importance of early diagnosis; 2) providing improved access to information, education, guidance for both patients and medical professionals; 3) promoting and supporting research into heart disease in women and its treatment.
Achievements and Performance
It has been a busy two years since our trustees first decided to set up a charitable organisation to raise awareness of women’s heart disease and its risks, to provide educational information to help women get the help they need, to improve the gender imbalance in diagnosis, treatment and outcomes for women with heart disease and to encourage additional research. The CIO’s constitution, strategy and public benefit statement were produced ready to register with the Charity Commission. Our application was submitted July 2021 and CIO approval was given by the Charity Commission 31st November 2021.
Since registration we have been working on the following:
1. Charity administration, policies and procedures
The trustee board has met on a regular basis and the Chair and Treasurer were appointed at the first meeting following registration. Trustees have written and approved the following policies: a full set of financial policies including expenses, GDPR policies and a Trustee Code of Conduct. Discussion and decisions have also been made to adopt the fundraising code of practice. We are very grateful to our volunteer Brian Curragh who supported the charity to open a bank account with CAF Bank and to produce quarterly accounts which are submitted to the board for approval.
2. Expert panel
Extensive work has taken place to recruit cardiologists with a special interest in women’s heart disease on to our expert panel. Dr C. Noel Bairey Merz, Director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Centre; Professor Dana Dawson, Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Aberdeen and an expert in Takotsubo syndrome; Dr Sanjay Gupta, Consultant Cardiologist at York Teaching Hospital and Dr David Adlam, Associate Professor at the University of Leicester, an interventional cardiologist and an expert on SCAD, have all joined our expert panel.
3. Fundraising
Caron, Brian and Tom Curragh took part in the Blenheim Palace triathlon as Caron’s Cardiac Warriors. It was a brilliant day both raising awareness of the charity and for our fundraising efforts. Caron and her team raised £2,134. Other individual donations have been made to Women’s Heartbeat via Just Giving, Amazon Smile and Give as you Live.
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Women’s Heartbeat
Women’s Heartbeat has been registered with NCVO and My Funding Central and a list of potential grant funding bodies has been made. Applications have been made for grant funding but with no success as yet.
A review of electronic fundraising platforms was undertaken to enable trustees to decide on the best and most cost effective methods to fundraise for the charity.
4. Promoting the charity
Trustees promote Women’s Heartbeat by writing articles, giving interviews, writing to politicians and the press and by attending lectures and symposia. Caron and Barbara recorded separate interviews about the lack of awareness of heart disease in women and living with heart disease with Dr Gupta. These interviews are hosted on his You Tube channel and have been watched over 18,000 times.
Our website https://www.womensheartbeat.com now appears at the top of the Google search list when entering women’s heartbeat.
5. Working with other charities
We continue to work closely with other heart charities. Caron was a finalist in the 2021 British Heart Foundation Heart Hero awards for Outstanding Contribution and was nominated again in 2022 and Caron continues her role as an ambassador for the British Heart Foundation. Caron is also a support volunteer with Cardiomyopathy UK.
6. Support for the women affected by the war in Ukraine
At the start of the war in Ukraine, Women’s Heartbeat wrote to all Ukrainian hospitals as well as hospitals in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania to raise awareness of the likely rise in Takotsubo cases as a result of the conflict. Takotsubo is known to increase in areas of conflict and disaster. Many thanks to Melanie for enabling us to provide the statement in Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Romanian and Polish, which helped us to reach out to as many medical professionals as possible.
7. Website
A large amount of work has gone into the design and launch of the website, with grateful thanks to Caron for all her hard work designing our new logo and for designing the artwork and content of the website. The website went live in 2022. Biographies have been written and posted of our trustees and members of our expert panel. The site emphasises our main aims: raising awareness, providing and improving access and promoting clinical research, as well as promoting our fundraising events. The website is also being populated with educational information about heart disease in women and what to look out for.
Anyone viewing the site can contact us by email, make a donation to the charity, or offer to volunteer.
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Women’s Heartbeat
8. Raising awareness and advocacy
Women’s Heartbeat contributed to the call for evidence from HM Government’s Women’s Health Strategy initiative. We also wrote to Dame Lesley Regan, the new Women’s Health Ambassador who had been appointed by the government to lead on the Women’s Health Strategy. We highlighted the gender bias in women’s cardiovascular disease outcomes, diagnosis and treatment as well as the role of Women’s Heartbeat. We were then invited to attend the Women’s Health Strategy Cardiovascular Round Table in June 2023.
Letters were sent to national newspapers in response to misleading and incorrect statements in articles about Takotsubo. Our letters informed the press of inaccuracies in their portrayal of Takotsubo and provided correct unbiased information.
Caron continues to undertake the administration of the Takotsubo Support Group on Facebook and the Takotsubo website Takotsubo.net. These sites provide support, information and education to its 3,200 international members. The Takotsubo support group has also been used to promote the aims of Women’s Heartbeat, keep members aware of the work of the charity, undertake patient surveys and promote fundraising events.
An article on women and heart disease was produced for Patient Participation Groups and a medical student at York University has been working on a leaflet for Takotsubo patients.
9. Support for women with heart issues and their families
Women’s Heartbeat trustees provided support for people with Takotsubo through the Takotsubo Facebook Support Group. Caron also provides one-to-one support to women with heart issues via both telephone and zoom as a volunteer with Cardiomyopathy UK.
10. Research
We are working closely with Prof. Dana Dawson, Aberdeen University in her application for funding for further research into Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy. We have provided expert help and letters of support for her applications.
The trustees are very grateful to all the volunteers and supporters who contributed time and money to support the charity.
Financial Review
The charity and its supporters raised £3,616. Our unrestricted funds were £2,953. The charity has given out no grants during the year. It is the policy of the trustees to keep reserves sufficient to cover four months operating costs. The trustees expect the charity to continue as a going concern.
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Women’s Heartbeat
Plans for future Periods
The trustees plan to continue with our current strategic objectives: raising awareness of women’s heart disease, including strengthening our links cardiac medical institutions, cardiac charities, NHS and central government and contributing to the Government’s Women’s Health Strategy; improving our access to information and education by developing our website and social media; and promoting research by continued work with cardiac research specialists.
Structure, Governance and Management
Women’s Heartbeat is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) governed by a constitution dated 20[th] November 2021. The original trustees are the founders of the charity. Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee will be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees will have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO.
The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and for ensuring that financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. Trustees are also responsible for guarding the assets of the charity and taking reasonable steps to detect and prevent irregularities and fraud.
In planning our activities for the period trustees kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit at our trustee meetings and in all our charitable activities.
The above report has been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102)
Signed on behalf of the board
Barbara Shaw Chair 24th August 2023
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Women’s Heartbeat
Statement of Financial Activities For the period ended 31[st] March 2023
| Incoming resources Just Giving receipts Trustee donations Individual donations Give As You Live receipts Smile Amazon Investment income Total incoming resources Resources expended Grant making Other expenses Website expenses Just Giving fees CAF Bank fees Total resources expended Net incoming resources Total Funds brought forward Total Funds carried forward |
2023 £ 2,356.07 1,083.00 75.00 68.63 30.83 2.44 |
|---|---|
| 3,615.97 322.48 252.00 88.00 |
|
| 662.48 | |
| 2,953.49 0.00 |
|
| 2,953.49 |
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Women’s Heartbeat
| Balance Sheet At 31stMarch 2023 Fixed assets Tangible assets Investments Total fixed assets Current assets Debtors Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets Creditors falling due within one year Total assets less current liabilities Creditors falling due after more than one year Net assets The funds of the charity Unrestricted funds Total charity funds Approved by the board on 24th August 2023 |
2023 £ 0.00 0.00 |
|---|---|
| 0.00 0.00 2,953.49 |
|
| 2,953.49 | |
| 2,953.49 | |
| 2,953.49 | |
| 2,953.49 | |
| 2,953.49 | |
And signed on its behalf by:
Barbara Shaw Chair 24th August 2023
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Women’s Heartbeat
Notes to the Accounts
For the period ended 31[st] March 2023
- 1 Accounting policies
Basis of preparation
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015) - (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.
Unrestricted funds
These are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objects of the charity.
Income
Recognition of income
Income is included in the Statement of Financial Activities (SoFA) when the charity becomes entitled to, and virtually certain to receive, the income and the amount of the income can be measured with sufficient reliability.
Income with related expenditure
Where income has related expenditure the income and related expenditure is reported gross in the SoFA.
Donations and legacies
Voluntary income received by way of grants, donations and gifts is included in the theSoFA when receivable and only when the Charity has unconditional entitlement to the income.
Donated services and facilities
These are only included in income (with an equivalent amount in expenditure) where the benefit to the Charity is reasonably quantifiable, measurable and material.
Volunteer help
The value of any volunteer help received is not included in the accounts.
Expenditure
Recognition of expenditure
Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is reported as part of the expenditure to which it relates.
Expenditure on raising funds
These comprise the costs associated with attracting voluntary income, fundraising trading costs and investment management costs.
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Women’s Heartbeat
Expenditure on charitable activities
These comprise the costs incurred by the Charity in the delivery of its activities and services in the furtherance of its objects, including the making of grants and governance costs.
Grants payable
All grant expenditure is accounted for on an actual paid basis plus an accrual for grants that have been approved by the trustees at the end of the year but not yet paid.
Governance costs
These include those costs associated with meeting the constitutional and statutory requirements of the Charity, including any audit/independent examination fees, costs linked to the strategic management of the Charity, together with a share of other administration costs.
Other expenditure
These are support costs not allocated to a particular activity. The charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities.
Taxation
The charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities.
Freehold investment property
The charity does not hold any freehold investment property.
Stocks
Stock is included at the lower of cost or net realisable value. Donated items of stock are recognised at fair value which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay for the items on the open market.
Trade and other debtors
Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.
Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash at bank and on hand, demand deposits with banks and other short-term highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less and bank overdrafts. In the statement of financial position, bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings or current liabilities. In the Statement of Cash Flows, cash and cash equivalents are shown net of bank overdrafts that are repayable on demand and form an integral part of the company's cash management.
Trade and other creditors
Short term creditors are measured at the transaction price. Other creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the
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obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.
Research and development
Expenditure on research and development is written off in the year in which it is incurred.
Pension costs
The charity does not operate a pension scheme.
- Charity status The charity is a CIO.
3. Related party disclosures
The board of trustees are the controlling party.
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