Taking May Measurement Month to the Welsh Office

Volunteers from Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have spent two days this month measuring the blood pressure of over 1,000 employees at the Welsh Office.

The initiative has been part of the international campaign, May Measurement Month, which is one of the biggest public screening exercises in the world. Led by the International Society of Hypertension and the World Hypertension League, the campaign aims to raise awareness of hypertension (high blood pressure) and it’s potentially fatal effects.

According to these two bodies, every year 10 million people around the world die needlessly because of high blood pressure, making it the planet’s single biggest killer. They will suffer a stroke, have a heart attack, or die from another cardiovascular complication linked to hypertension and only around half of those who die this way will have known they had raised blood pressure.

During the two days at the Welsh Office, volunteers from the School of Pharmacy monitored the blood pressure of over 1,000 Welsh Government employees and a small number were told to seek immediate medical advice as a result of their blood pressure reading.

Dr Will Ford from Cardiff’s School of Pharmacy, said ‘this has been a great opportunity to put our clinical skills into practice for over 1,000 people in Wales who work just across the road from our building. Hypertension has no symptoms and can only be discovered by measuring yet we know that high blood pressure can lead to all kinds of conditions which put people’s lives at risk. That’s why we are grateful for the opportunity to raise awareness of high blood pressure and we are encouraging everyone to get monitored regularly.’