Brixton Market was bustling with free blood pressure checks when Know your Numbers! Week 2009 came to Electric Avenue on Wednesday (9 September).

UK charity the Blood Pressure Association set up a ‘Pressure Station’ in the market, driving in one of its screening vans, which offered the free checks to hundreds of shoppers and passers-by.

This Pressure Stations is one of 1,500 Pressure Stations run by health professionals across the UK as part of the nation’s biggest blood pressure testing event.

During this year’s Know your Numbers! Week, the Blood Pressure Association asked ‘Could YOU be the 1 in 3?’ because one in three adults in the UK (16 million) has high blood pressure, yet a third of those who have the condition don’t even know because it has no symptoms.

Untreated high blood pressure can cause stroke, heart attack and heart failure, but once it’s diagnosed the condition can be very successfully managed.

Mike Rich, Executive Director of UK charity the Blood Pressure Association, said: “High blood pressure affects a third of UK adults, yet millions have no idea they have the condition.

“We want to save the thousands of lives lost each year to stroke and heart attack caused by high blood pressure, and a free blood pressure check during Know your Numbers! Week is an excellent first step to lifelong healthy blood pressure.”