St John’s students help to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation

Students at St John’s have filled numerous wheelie bins, bags and boxes with their unwanted items to help generate cash for the British Heart Foundation.

The University of Cambridge and Cambridge City Council are working together by participating in the Pack for Good campaign to help raise money for the British Heart Foundation’s lifesaving heart research and to reduce wastage. Bins and boxes were placed around the city and Colleges, and students were asked to fill bags with unwanted items.

Between June and September, St John’s students filled 382 bags, 172 wheelie bins, and 49 boxes with items such as clothes, electrical goods, books and CDs for the BHF’s Pack for Good campaign in their “fight for every heartbeat”, led by the College’s Housekeeping Department. So far this year, the University and the Council have collected 8,431 bags, generating an income of approximately £120,000 and diverting 67.4 tonnes of items from landfill.

The scheme enables the British Heart Foundation to raise funds for the fight against coronary heart disease – the UK’s single biggest killer – by filling their 730 shops across the country with much-needed stock during the quieter summer period. It also provides a free collection service as well as helping to reduce wastage and cut down on Co2 emissions. The City Council and the University joined the campaign in 2013, and it has been successfully growing ever since.

Wheelie bins, boxes and recycling bags were delivered to St John’s just before the end of Easter Term, enabling students to recycle their unwanted items when packing up their belongings for the summer. One bag of donations from a student could be worth as much as £14 and can make a real difference to the lives of people living with heart and circulatory conditions.

“The students made good use of the bins/boxes this year, giving more thought to the disposal of unwanted items,” Joanne Smith, Superintendent of Housekeeping at St John’s College, said. “This year and last were particularly good years for student participation – a great effort that we want to encourage further in 2016.”

Thanks to initiatives such as Pack for Good, the British Heart Foundation has been able to provide funding in the Cambridge area for 95 defibrillators, CPR training for five local establishments, two BHF stores, 17,991 free heart health resources, and research grants in excess of £42,913,953.

To read the Pack for Good campaign report from the British Heart Foundation, click here.

To read more information about the British Heart Foundation, visit their website.