University College Isle of Man (UCM) held a blood pressure awareness event, joining in with a UK-wide campaign.

’Know Your Numbers’ saw 100 staff and students at the college have their blood pressure measured by the Stroke Association.

The college’s health and well-being co-ordinator, Kate Bergquist said: ’We have seen a rise in the number of young people with hypertension (high blood pressure) since we last ran the event in 2015.’

The ’Know Your Numbers’ week is the UK’s largest annual blood pressure testing and awareness event.

Since its launch in 2001, it has ensured that 1.5m people have had their blood pressure checked.

Jo Pretty, UCM principal, said that the event at the college was the first of a number of health and well-being initiatives the students will be invited to take part in this year.

’We take our role as educators extremely seriously and consider that as well as supporting students through to their academic or vocational qualifications, we should also make them aware of the importance of establishing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle,’ she said.

’The health and well-being co-ordinator will not only be running awareness raising campaigns, fitness classes and whole group activities, they will also be happy to work one-to-one with students in order to address specific need.’

’Know Your Numbers’ is Blood Pressure UK’s flagship awareness campaign. It encourages adults to know their blood pressure numbers and take the necessary action to reach and maintain a healthy blood pressure.

The highlight is ’Know Your Numbers’ week, which takes place in the second week of September each year.

One in three adults in the UK has high blood pressure, which is the biggest known cause of premature death and disability in the UK due to the strokes, heart attacks and heart disease it causes. It is also a risk factor for kidney disease and dementia.

People with high blood pressure are there times more likely to develop heart disease and stroke, and twice as likely to die from these as people with normal blood pressure.

High blood pressure is responsible for about 60% of strokes and the number of strokes among younger adults is increasing.

High risk groups include the over 55s, people of African Caribbean descent, and people of South Asian origin who are more prone to other vascular conditions.

www.bloodpressureuk.org