If you didn’t know before picking up this issue of Seaside Magazine, you likely do now: February is Heart Month. As Dr. Marita Schauch shares in the Inside Out column this month (pg. 17), every seven minutes in Canada, someone dies of heart disease or stroke (Stats Canada, 2011). Sadly, on February 17th, 2008, my grandpa was one of them.
He was a father of four, grandfather of 13, great-grandfather of one, and his death was a huge blow to our family. In this issue of Seaside, we share several articles we hope will make readers more aware of their own health, in the hopes that their families will never suffer the passing of a loved one due to heart disease or stroke.
So how did the Heart Month campaign come to be?
From www.heartandstroke.ca: More than 60 years ago, a visionary group of Canadians, including physicians and researchers, established the National Heart Foundation of Canada with big hopes for the future.
They had a dream: to put heart health on the public agenda, to empower researchers to turn the tide on heart disease, and to educate Canadians about their hearts. With the emergence of Ontario’s Foundation in 1952 and British Columbia’s three years later, a network soon began to develop across the country. In 1956, the Quebec and Saskatchewan Foundations were established. In 1961, the Foundation was renamed the Canadian Heart Foundation. In 2011, the national office and nine independent provincial bodies united to become one strong, national organization. Today, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is at work in communities from coast to coast.
The Heart Month campaign began in 1958 when the Foundation, led by Dr. Wilfred Bigelow, committed to raise $600,000 to fund heart research. Now, the Heart Month Campaign is a well established national community based fundraising campaign. It is the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s key opportunity to reach millions of Canadians in February and alert them to the risks of heart disease and stroke.
With 90% of Canadians having at least one risk factor for these heart issues, the need is great. This February, enjoy our health-themed articles, take care of yourself, and, as Dianne Connerly says on
page 16: “be your own Valentine.”
