A HEART charity has given scientists in Oxfordshire more than £400,000 to allow them to carry out their research.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) gave the money as part of Support Our Science month – a celebration of the charity’s lifesaving research.

Prof Peter Jezzard, of Oxford University, has been given £134,638 to use state-of-the-art 3D scanning equipment to create images of fatty build-ups in the blood vessels.

This kills about 88,000 people in the UK every year.

Dr Robert Clarke, also of Oxford University, has been given £112,140 to find out whether prescribing vitamin D can help prevent heart and circulatory disease.

And a team of scientists from Oxford University and Bristol University has been given £170,884 to carry out research into heart inflammation.