It’s February, and that means Valentine’s Day. You all know what that means–flowers and candy for your sweetie, sentimental cards sent out, all that nice stuff.
But that’s not the only thing going on in February. This month is Hearth Month, when we zero in on stopping and slowing down heart disease and strokes.
For the whole month, canvassers will be out and about, asking for your help.
Why do we spend a whole month asking people to help the Heart and Stroke Foundation? Well, there are a lot of really good reasons.
First, this is the number-one killer of people in Canada–more than all cancers combined, more than accidents, more than anything else. Second, for you ladies out there, heart disease is your greatest threat–eight times greater than breast cancer, seven times more than lung cancer, again, greater than anything else.
Third, heart and stroke problems cost us untold millions. Loss of work, loss of pay, loss of quality time. And the cost of medical care. Almost all aspects of life can be influenced by your heart.
Well, what’s new in this field. Well, here are a couple of things. You have all heard of gene therapy, right? Well, a former horse trainer in Toronto made history last year when he received gene therapy to grow new blood vessels in his heart.
Like many of you, he has heart failure but parts of his heart were so damaged that no one could operate. Instead, the proper genes were inserted so some new blood vessels would grow.
Now he is active and enjoying life again. Wonderful, isn’t it!
Something else new is the Heart and Stroke Health Show, which hit the airwaves last Sunday and continues for 26 weeks on the Global CanWest network. It will cover just about everything you would want to know about heart and stroke problems.
It will feature physicians, and researchers, but also survivors–people like you and me.
Another fairly new thing is the participation of school kids in heart-healthy programs. In Thunder Bay, they have “Jump Rope for Health,” “Hoop it up for Health,” “Mother-Daughter Walk,” “Families in Motion,” and “Northern Initiative for Youth.”
And there are more!
Also, Heart and Stroke has been on-line for a while now. Just go for www.heartandstroke.ca. You can even send your honey a personalized Valentine by e-mail.
And guess who is now on the board of the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Well, it’s Wayne Gretsky’s dad, Walter. A few years ago, Walter had a terrible stroke–bad enough that no one thought he’d pull through. But he did!
It took a long time but he finally recovered. So he’s still able to enjoy life and give Wayne a few pointers about hockey.
Well, Fort Frances, it’s your turn now. Please welcome the Heart and Stroke canvassers. He or she likely will be your neighbour anyway, and will be wearing a button showing the familiar logo of our organization.
Last year, we raised more than $12,000. Let’s really go at it and see if we can improve that in 2001.
Remember, the heart you save might just be your own!
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
