The Heart Foundation report, released last week, showed that Cessnock had 72.1 admissions for heart disease per 10,000 people in the two years to mid 2014.

This came in well above the NSW average of 45.8 admissions per 10,000 people.

The data also conveyed that more than a third of people living in the Hunter Valley have high blood pressure and about one in three are obese.

Local personal trainer Samantha Hindmarsh said she wasn’t surprised to hear these statistics, considering Cessnock was the sixth most obese town in Australia just a few years ago.

Ms Hindmarsh has turned her own health and lost around 40 kilograms.

She said improvement across the community was about “getting people moving and getting them educated.”

“We’re making poor choices as a community,” she said.

“[We need to be] turning bad habits into good.”

Ms Hindmarsh is trying to do just that by establishing a local Parkrun, a national chain of free weekly fun-runs.

She said she hoped that the initiative led to an improvement in heart disease hospital admissions.

“The more we move as a community, the more those statistics come down,” Ms Hindmarsh said.

Heart Foundation NSW CEO Kerry Doyle said 72.1 was a “fairly concerning statistic” but that she was pleased people with heart conditions were seeking help through the hospital system.

Ms Doyle said the figures were a result of family history, lifestyle risk factors, being sedentary, lack of physical activity, smoking, being overweight or obese and hypertension/high blood pressure.

She said the foundation was urging the federal government to implement a fully funded cardiovascular plan, with a robust regional component.

“It is often the people who need it the most that governments and communities are the least effective in reaching,” she said.

Coalfields Healthy Heartbeat has several free and low-cost resources available for improving heart health.

The information covers eating well on a budget, a money planner, walking guide and physical activity guide.

To access these services, visit www.samaritans.org.au/cms/service/chhb/