The British Heart Foundation has launched a new advertising campaign that features an amazing real-time simulation of a beating heart.

The campaign confronts viewers with the perhaps gory but nevertheless fascinating reality of the most vital of vital organs, and challenges them to think about heart and circulatory disease – Britain’s biggest killer.

British Heart Foundation Director of Policy and Communications, Betty McBride, said, “We wanted to confront people with the reality of what a working heart looks like. This is a rare chance for people to see in incredible detail how it works. We expect people to react in lots of different ways – whether it’s amazed, squeamish or disturbed. It’s vital that we get people to take time to think about their heart health.”

The Virtual Heart Simulator was developed in a collaboration between specialists at The Heart Hospital in London and design agency Glassworks. The British Heart Foundation boasts that this fantastic video represents “the biggest technical advancement since Leonardo da Vinci sketched the heart 500 years ago.”

The campaign advertises the guidance and advice that the British Heart Foundation provides, not least through its Heart Helpline, where cardiac nurses and information officers are on hand 9am-10pm, seven days a week, to provide free confidential information on heart health issues.

The campaign website also features a helpful A-Z of the heart, which explains in plain english cardiology terms such as ‘supraventricular tachycardia’ and ‘cardiomyopathy’.

• You can call the Heart Helpline on 0300 333 1 333, or alternatively peruse the British Heart Foundation website www.bhf.org.uk for stacks of information on heart health