A NEW campaign to get more people to carry donor cards has been launched by the Watford-based charity The Cardiomyopathy Association.

Cardiomyopathy is a heart muscle disease and the major cause of heart failure leading to the need for heart transplantation.

Ms Gabby Logan is the patron of the national charity and she lost a brother to the condition.

She said: "Hundreds of families could be spared the loss of a loved one if only more people were prepared to join the NHS Organ Donor Register."

The charity's organ donor campaign, which was launched on Wednesday, is timed to coincide with British Heart Week and is the prelude to two weeks of awareness-raising culminating in the first ever Cardiomyopathy Awareness Day on Monday, June 24.

In a drive to help reduce the incidence of death from Cardiomyopathy the CMA has produced the first ever CD-rom on the condition.

The CD-roms will be sent to over 20,000 GPs this summer.

The Cardiomyopathy Association was established in Watford by a small group of people in1989. It is now a national organisation.

Information about the Cardiomyopathy Association, donor cards and the CD roms is available from 40 The Metro Centre, Tolpits Lane, Watford, WD18 9SB.

The CMA also offers a national support network for those affected by the disease via a freephone telephone number 0800 0181024 or visit www.cardiomyopathy.org

June 12, 2002 16:00