An Addington pensioner was among more than 100 people to descend on the Houses of Parliament demanding a renewed commitment to tackling heart and circulatory disease last week.

Wiktor Molleskog said an operation to widen a narrow artery in his heart changed his life, and he wanted to ensure future generations of patients continue to receive the same levels of rehabilitation and support he did.

The 67-year-old also met with Croydon Central MP Andrew Pelling to ask him to back a 150,000 signature petition calling for a new Government plan to tackle heart disease - the UK’s biggest killer.

Peter Hollins, chief executive at the British Heart Foundation, said: “There has been tremendous progress over the last ten years – but heart disease is responsible for a third of all deaths in the UK. We need to go further and faster to beat this.

“Patients still don’t receive life saving treatments like cardiac rehabilitation – if this were a pill it would have been on the NHS years ago.

“Heart and circulatory disease remains disproportionately high amongst people living in disadvantaged communities.

“We need a Government that is willing to tackle the UK’s biggest killer head on with a new heart plan to ensure patients are given the heart health care they deserve.”

More information is available at bhf.org.uk/