Schoolchildren and researchers star in flagship BBC broadcast

This novel project is using state of the art echocardiography scanners from Toshiba to acquire images of the hearts of healthy children and adolescents, young patients who have had successful heart surgery and talented young footballers from the Manchester United Academy. It is designed to determine what a normal heart looks like compared to hearts with abnormalities.

Bramdean School, which has been involved in a number of projects with the Children's Health and Exercise Research Centre (CHERC) at the University of Exeter, is already looking forward to having more pupils involved in the project. Head teacher Mr Connett said: “It is crucial we know more about the heart health of our youth and we are fully supportive of this project.”

Professor Craig Williams said: "We are so grateful to all the schools in and around Exeter that participate in our studies, we know how busy they are but we hope that all the pupils and teachers learn new knowledge about health, science and technology. In fact a school from as far as Torquay was also involved in this study (Tower House)."

A BBC satellite truck broadcast a series of live segments from Bramdean School throughout the morning, whilst pupils put on a fantastic display of sports in the background. The school’s head of Physical Education, Javier Martin-Cortes, was interviewed alongside Professor Williams about the research and their contribution to it.

The project now moves onto testing the young paediatric patients at the Bristol Heart Institute and Bristol Children's hospital and aims to better quantify and prescribe exercise for these patients.