Heart Research UK - Helping Hearts for over 50 years We're a national charity that has been helping hearts since 1967 when heart surgeon, Mr David Watson MBE, realised that patients were dying unnecessarily because of the lack of research into heart disease, especially surgical techniques. More personally, he was tired of telling heart patients that there was little he could do to help them and wanted to do more. Since then, we've been encouraging people locally to live healthier, happier and longer lives through our work in funding ground-breaking medical research as well as helping communities to improve their lifestyles through our Healthy Heart grants. Having paid for six of the first eight successful UK heart transplants, Heart Research UK still funds ground-breaking medical research into the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease.