A Nottinghamshire artist who lives with the same life-threatening heart condition that took her mother’s life held a silent auction of her work to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation.
Renee Mascari from Ruddington lives with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic heart disease, which can often leave her feeling breathless and tired.
Renee was just 31 when her mother Marie died at age 49 of the same disease.
She herself, now 72 years old, was diagnosed in 2018 at a Nottingham hospital.
Since 2020, she has had two further hospital admissions where her heart was struggling to pump blood around her body.
Renee, who sees a cardiologist every year, knows her heart failure will not improve, ” But I won’t slow down”, she said, “I love my art and my work and have no wish to stop.”
Her catalogue of work nods to her childhood in Africa, with images of zebras featuring.
The silent auction, which is available online, ends at 4pm on March 1st. Bidding for larger canvases starting at £99, a fraction of what they usually sell for in galleries. The paintings are available to be viewed online, as well as in person at Mascari Design in Ruddington on the same date.
Renee said ” Thanks to the work of the British Heart Foundation and the medical research, I’m on medication and I’m alive. I would love it if researchers would come up with a new drug that would cure me, and others, of heart failure. This is why raising funds is so important.”
Mel Meik, Fundraising Manager for the British Heart Foundation said; “What Renee is doing in being able to offer people the opportunity to buy a one-off beautiful piece of artwork and support life-saving and life-changing research for the British Heart Foundation is really special.”
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