Hearty laugh as mayor opens Wolverhampton's new coronary rehabilitation centre

The Mayor of Wolverhampton, Councillor Sandra Samuels, joined members of the Coronary Aftercare Support Group with Have a Heart mascot 'Dicky Ticker'.

Since 1985, Wolverhampton Coronary Aftercare Support Group has raised over £2 million for cardiac patients and their carers from across the Black Country.

Patients have been using the Salisbury Street centre since August 15. It allows patients who have completed their NHS cardiac rehabilitation to attend long-term cardiac rehabilitation exercise classes, supervised by fully trained exercise professionals.

A spokesman for the charity said: "We wanted to make the service sustainable for the future and started this project, to find their own venue and overcome the problems they faced with the current set-up and also create a social and exercise hub for their members.

"So Have A Heart Wolverhampton is a new, non-profit company affiliated with Wolverhampton Coronary Aftercare Support Group.

"This facility offers much-needed additional capacity as well as offering greater flexibility. There are circuit-based classes at varying times throughout the day, plus patients can exercise individually in the well-equipped gym or even join exercise to music classes.

"This is only the start of the services that will be offered to their members, already in the first month they have added a coffee and chat zone, so that patients can socialise."

The spokesman said: "Have A Heart Wolverhampton has been created utilising the fund raising of Wolverhampton Coronary Aftercare Support Group, and they were very lucky and extremely grateful to have recently been awarded a grant of £10,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund to support this project."

In June 2008, the group received The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for its work in providing support and representation for the patients and carers of the Heart and Lung Centre at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.

Over the years it has grown, offering cardiac patients access to rehabilitation classes after cardiac events in addition to their hospital care.

Pre-Covid their service was running 25 classes over the course of the week across five venues. They had to close their doors to their rehab classes due to the Covid 19 pandemic. This left patients with no access to exercise sessions, which were an intricate part of their recovery and rehabilitation, and then limited access to community gyms and halls due to covid restrictions."