From heart attacks to congenital defects, cardiovascular disease affects everybody in some way or other. As the British Heart Foundation's Ramp Up The Red fundraising campaign approaches, Abi Jackson looks at how the charity's work is saving - and improving - countless lives.

Five decades ago, having a heart attack meant almost certain death.

Today, around two-thirds will survive.

A number of factors are to thank for this but, collectively, one very big reason is the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the money they plough into research.

The charity was set up in 1961 - a year when more than half of all recorded deaths were caused by some form of heart and circulatory disease, with coronary heart disease (CHD - where arteries become clogged and narrowed over time, leading to an increased risk of heart attacks) the single biggest cause.

Little was understood about the causes, let alone what to do about heart attacks.

Four doctors (Maurice Campbell, Paul Wood, Evan Bedford and William Evans) joined forces to found an organisation that would make changing this, along with the addressing heart health as a whole, its aim.

Two years on, in 1963 the BHF was able to issue its first research grants, totalling £180,980, with selected projects including improving pacemakers - practically brand new medicine at the time - and pioneering surgeon Donald Ross's exploration into heart valve replacement.

Another five years later, Ross led the team who carried out the country's first ever heart transplant, supported by the BHF.

In the time since, a lot's been achieved. Fatalities for children born with heart defects have dropped by more than 80%, technology - including machinery to carry out scans and ICD implants, which help fix irregular heartbeats in people at risk of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome - has been revolutionised and, far from being the mystery they once were, much is now understood about the factors that increase somebody's chances of suffering a heart attack, from smoking and poor diet, to the genes that play a part.

But there's still a long way to go.

Heart and circulatory diseases still account for more than a quarter of all UK deaths, with CHD remaining the biggest single cause, almost one-in-six men and more than one-in-ten women dying from it each year.

But the battle isn't only a matter of life or death - it's about quality of life, too, particularly with heart attack survival rates higher than ever, which presents a whole new challenge.

"When you have a heart attack, a part of the heart muscle dies. Because of this, it doesn't work fully afterwards, your heart never pumps properly," says Professor Jeremy Pearson, BHF's associate medical director.

What he's describing is heart failure, which can be extremely debilitating, causing shortness of breath, fluid retention and swelling, and also fatigue. For many, this makes living a full life difficult and life expectancy's shortened.

Pearson's part of a small department who ensure the appropriate expert panels are drafted in to review funding applications, so cash is well allocated.

The bulk of the charity's money is spent on research. The exact proportion varies but last year, three-quarters - around £90 million - was used in this way, with the rest going on prevention and care activities, including community support groups, first aid training and health campaigns.

So what's the criteria for funding being granted?

Ultimately, the hope is that all research the BHF supports will eventually be of benefit to patients.

"But that benefit doesn't have to come about tomorrow, because we firmly believe that if you don't do some discovery research, you won't have anything to translate to what will actually help patients," Pearson explains.

"Some of what we fund is really quite fundamental research, to discover things like how a heart cell beats in a way that we didn't know before, or which molecules are involved in that, and how they will be targetable to try and help fix irregular heartbeats, for example."

On average, Pearson notes, it takes a good decade or two before any heart research translates into practical outcomes, like new treatments or diagnostic methods.

The BHF doesn't favour particular areas of heart health and covers the whole spectrum.

Money isn't handed out willy-nilly though; applications must be deemed to be offering something new, something competitive. In fact, many of the BHF's milestones relate to groundbreaking research which has changed the landscape of heart health worldwide, and guidelines within the NHS.

Two huge examples include introducing clot-busting drugs in the late Eighties, now a standard first response for heart attack patients, and the increased use of angiograms - scans to check the extent of narrowing or blockages in the arteries.

But there is one area the charity's encouraging research which relates to heart failure and finding ways of regenerating damaged heart tissue - the focus of the Mending Broken Hearts appeal, launched in 2011 with a particularly memorable campaign featuring some bright-eyed zebrafish.

"You can actually cut a piece off a zebrafish's heart, and it will completely re-grow it and then be swimming around happily with a perfectly good heart again," says Pearson, summing up some vital findings playing a central part in continuing research in this area.

The BHF's supporting a team at the University of Sheffield, led by Dr Tim Chico, who are underway with studies to improve understanding of the zebrafish's cardiac prowess.

"The secret to this lies in stem cells," adds Pearson, "which are very good in the zebrafish for making heart cells regenerate."

The next step is to unlock ways of making this happen in humans - it's early days but work's underway and Pearson's optimistic.

Another exciting area of current research is genetics. Big breakthroughs have already been made and almost 50 genes have now been identified as playing a role in various heart problems, including a genetic predisposition for higher cholesterol levels.

Dr Anoop Shah is part of a research team at the University of Edinburgh who recently identified a blood test that could improve diagnosis rates for heart attacks in women, who are currently under-diagnosed compared with men.

When the heart muscle's damaged, a protein called troponin is released into the blood, but in women (because their hearts tend to be smaller) the levels are lower and therefore, less easily detected, Dr Shah explains.

"The pilot study showed us that this new blood test will detect more women with heart attacks, as it can pick up much lower levels of troponin," he says.

The team are now underway with the major study phase - to determine, in very simple terms, whether or not this test will actually improve treatment and survival rates for women. If the answer's yes, the test will be introduced into the healthcare system.

As Dr Shah explains, a study like this can involve teams of up to 40 people, and there are numerous stages and obstacles that need to be crossed, not least getting patients on board to gather samples, for instance, and this study's due for completion in early 2017.

This gives some indication of the costs and level of work involved.

The BHF's hoping that this year's Ramp Up The Red campaign will raise at least £1million, which, as an example, could help fund a five-year research programme or a clinical trial.

And, ultimately, help save and improve thousands of lives.

:: On Friday, February 7, the BHF's asking the public to Ramp Up The Red and fundraise by wearing red make-up, red clothing or throwing a red party to help continue its vital research to beat heart disease. To order your FREE fundraising pack, visit www.bhf.org.uk/red or call 0800 0316 316