AN exhibition of Scottish heart patients bearing their scars will be back in focus this week at a major health event.
ScarredFORlife will be exhibited at a conference aimed at cardiologists, which is being held at the Royal Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow.
The project was created by three friends, all born with a heart condition, Dr Liza Morton, Evening Times reporter Caroline Wilson and Jenny Kumar, on behalf of adult heart charity The Somerville Foundation.
They wanted to celebrate the medical advances that are helping to ensure more children survive into adulthood and to help remove the stigma of scars.
Project leaders are now aiming to target the medical profession to help close a gap in the number of doctors specialising in CHD in Scotland.
Dr Liza Morton, Scottish Campaign Manager of the Sommerville Foundation said: “We’re delighted to show our 'Scarred FOR Life' photo exhibition to the cardiology profession, both to thank them for the pioneering work that has led to our survival and to raise the profile of congenital heart disease with the aim of attracting more cardiologists and medics into this niche speciality.”
Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) describes any heart condition present from birth.
It is the most common complex birth defect, which affects 1 in 125 babies and has no cure.
In the 1940s, only 20 per cent of infants born with a heart condition survived, whereas today around 90 per cent are now reaching adulthood.
The event, on Friday, March 4, is a collaboration between the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the British Cardiovascular Society.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here