Emma's Story

TV presenter, Emma Willis shares her personal experience of living with an undetected hole in her heart in a new campaign created by GAIN Creative Studios to mark the charity’s 65th anniversary.

In a series of films for the social media campaign by GAIN Creative Studios, Emma opens up about her heart condition and takes the audience through her journey of diagnosis, treatment and recovery.

The films are shot in an informal, intimate, documentary style, with Emma speaking directly to the camera while sitting on a British Heart Foundation red bench. The campaign builds on Saatchi & Saatchi’s “In Living Memory” creative for the charity.

In another film in the series, Emma chats on the red bench with real life case studies, living with heart conditions, including Aimee and her son Leo, a young boy who was born with a hole in his heart and Michelle who lived with an undetected heart condition.

The campaign comprises four films in total, with two launching today. Together, the first releases introduce Emma’s personal story alongside an introduction to real-life case studies with Aimee, Leo and Michelle.

Each film was purposefully crafted for the British Heart Foundation’s social platforms, primarily across Meta channels, to raise awareness of the charity’s cause through powerful, human-led storytelling.

Nicole Yost, British Heart Foundation's Director of Communications & Corporate Affairs, said: “The film production is stripped back to focus on honesty, humanity and connection. By placing the red bench into the flow of daily life, the campaign highlights how the British Heart Foundation enables those ordinary moments we often take for granted - and the extraordinary impact that BHF research continues to have on people’s lives.”

Jack Murrell, Senior Art Director, GAIN Creative Studios added “Working with a charity like the British Heart Foundation is incredibly rewarding. It gives us the chance to create work that can genuinely make a difference. The Red Bench is a powerful symbol and it is further brought to life by hearing the stories of the people who sit on it. We wanted to strip things back and avoid anything that felt overly produced, allowing Emma’s experience to speak for itself. When someone shares something that personal in such an everyday setting, it creates a real sense of connection”