UNIQUE SCHEME HITS £500,000 MARK

Over Half a Million Pounds Pledged to Charities and Worthy Causes in Coventry, Warwickshire and South Leicestershire by Helping Hearts

A groundbreaking scheme in which the region’s largest independent retailer pledges every penny of its profit from sales of tobacco to charities and worthy causes has hit the £500,000 mark.

Tens of thousands of people in Coventry, Warwickshire and south Leicestershire have benefited from Helping Hearts – launched by the Heart of England Co-operative Society nine years ago.

The appeal was kickstarted way back in May 2000 with a commitment of £50,000 for the first year. Since then the homeless, brownies and cubs, young carers, the elderly and cancer patients are among the groups of people from all walks of life to benefit from Helping Hearts Awards.

From new football kits for children to short breaks away for carers, and from travelling expenses for volunteers to Christmas parties for the elderly, the criteria for a Helping Hearts donation is wide and varied.

Believed to be the only scheme of its kind in the world even today, Helping Hearts was launched by the Society to help Charities and Groups in need of financial support.

With tobacco firmly implicated as a major player in several of the biggest killers, including cancer, lung disease and heart disease, the Society - which prides itself as an ethical retailer – felt it wrong to continue profiting from sales of such goods.

Ali Kurji, Chief Executive of the Heart of England Co-operative Society, said the pledges  – which range between £10 and £1,000 – had helped make a real difference to the lives of thousands of people over the last nine years.

He said: “The very foundations of this Society are built on our pride as an ethical retailer and as such we thought it only right to no longer reap the rewards of sales of tobacco products.