British Heart Foundation

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BSU students collaborate in community partnership to reach £1m donation target for the British Heart Foundation

Friday, 16 January, 2026

Pre-loved clothes, books and kitchen utensils donated by students in Bath have helped raise a staggering £1m for the British Heart Foundation.  

For the last 11 years, BSU has been a part of the British Heart Foundation’s ‘Pack for Good’ campaign, working alongside institutions across the city in the Student Community Partnership (SCP) to save items from going to landfill and instead raise money for an important cause.  

The annual campaign encourages students who are leaving their homes at the end of the academic year to recycle any good quality pre-loved items correctly. Donated items provide stock for the British Heart Foundation shop in Bath and are sold to help fund life-saving research into cardiovascular disease.  

British Heart Foundation donation bins across BSU campuses have made a significant contribution to the charity’s fundraising efforts over the past 11 years. In the 24/25 academic year alone, student donations raised more than £15.5k and diverted 8.2 tonnes of items from going to waste. 1029 bags of clothing were collected from our campuses, up from 546 in 23/24, an increase of 87%! 

Combined with more fundraising streams such as campus pop-up shops, the total raised will make a meaningful difference to the charity’s work. For example, £10,000 is enough to buy an incubator to keep cells in a similar environment to the human body, allowing researchers to grow the cells and carry out experiments.

2025 was the wider campaign’s most successful year to date with the donated items raising just under £209,000, bringing the total raised since the campaign launched to more than £1m.  

Councillor Mark Elliott, Cabinet Member for Resources, said:

“It’s worth celebrating this level of partnership working between the council and the universities and colleges. This is a fantastic achievement and I’d like to thank everyone who donated and helped make this the most successful year to date."

He continued; 

“The items left in the 15 temporary donation points around the city centre this summer raised an incredible £150,675. In line with our zero waste strategy, this work helps increase recycling and promotes a circular economy - where rather than throw products away we keep them in use for as long as possible.” 

The SCP is a partnership of Bath Spa University, University of Bath, Bath College and their students’ unions and with Norland College and Bath & North East Somerset Council. 

Professor Rebecca Schaaf, Senior Pro Vice Chancellor at Bath Spa University, said:

"We're delighted to have played our part in reaching this brilliant milestone, funding the important work of British Heart Foundation and encouraging more sustainable choices. BSU continues to hold sustainability as one of its core values and embeds this across the board."

"For over a decade we have supported the Pack for Good initiative, encouraging recycling activity across the city, and we look forward to helping it to reach even more milestones in the future."  

Professor Cassie Wilson, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Student Experience and Sport), University of Bath said:

“We’re very proud to be part of the Student Community Partnership and to see the incredible impact of this initiative. Reaching the £1m milestone reflects the commitment of our students and partners to sustainability and community support.” 

Tim Reeves University Account Executive at BHF, said:

“Far too many of us have felt the pain of losing someone we love to cardiovascular disease, the world’s biggest killer. We are incredibly grateful for the support from the student community partnership which helps British Heart Foundation (BHF) power groundbreaking research to save and improve lives­.”