MANY families have experienced the devastating consequences of people dying prematurely from heart disease.

In Bolton, 587 men and 172 women died from heart failure between 1997 and 1999.

The town is a heart attack blackspot with 51 deaths per 100,000.

This is why the Bolton Evening News and the Royal Bolton Hospital have launched their £1 million appeal to offer a glimmer of hope to people like Edna Unsworth, a local pensioner, who has a family history of heart disease.

We want to build a better coronary care unit with better equipment to save more lives.

Lives of people like Edna. Her two sisters both had heart attacks and now, aged 65, she fears she too will suffer the same fate.

Mrs Unsworth is among hundreds of people in Bolton who may have an increased risk of inheriting chronic heart disease.

Bolton has one of the worst heart disease rates in the country due to poor eating habits, a large ethnic population who have a higher risk of heart failure and diabetes and inherited genetic factors.

Mrs Unsworth is taking every step to make sure her heart is healthy and stays healthy.

Every 12 months, she has a medical "MOT" on the treadmill at the cardiology unit in the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The treadmill measures blood pressure and heart rate changes while a patient carries out gentle exercise to make them out of breath.

Dr Peter Scott, consultant cardiologist at the Royal Bolton Hospital, said: "If there are significant changes, then some patients may benefit from heart bypass surgery.

"A total of 60 per cent of heart attacks have genetic links with heart disease. It is not all down to eating the wrong foods, drinking or smoking.

"Family history plays an important part."

The Coronary Care Appeal 2002 aims to raise £1 million to re-build the cardiac heart unit into a 10 bed ward.

Already the appeal stands at £356,000, thanks to local donations.

The unit was orginally opened in 1969 and has only six beds. Experts say that the hospital should have at least 10 to 12 intense coronary care nursing beds.

The British Heart Foundation has launched a study into family links with heart disease.

They are looking for families who have a history of CHD to contact them.

Those interested should contact the freephone number 0800 052 7154.