Dear Friend of Heart:
She’s strong and she’s in shape. She’s a runner and a mother of four. When you talk to her, you can hear her zest for life come through in everything she says. But one day, she started having trouble breathing, climbing stairs and even lying down. She decided enough was enough, and went to the doctor. The news was earth-shattering. But she was not alone…
One state away, another woman was preparing for a first date. She began to experience strange symptoms but chalked them up to nerves. But as she sat down at the restaurant, she recognized that something was really wrong. Not long after that, she was in the emergency room with a blood pressure reading of 179 over 159…
Meet Kansas City native Liz Tatham and St. Louis native Shermane Winters–Wofford, two women who agreed to share their personal stories to help save lives and were chosen to be the national faces of Go Red For Women for 2012. Liz, who used to run 15 miles a week with her son’s running club, discovered that she had a faulty valve requiring open heart surgery. Shermane had a stroke that night on her first date…with the man she ended up marrying!
Their stories are sensational but not unique. The fact is, more women die of heart disease than all forms of cancer combined. Unfortunately, this killer isn’t as easy to see. Heart disease is often silent, hidden and misunderstood.
The truth is: our lives are in our hands. Currently some eight million women in the U.S. are living with heart disease, yet only one in six women believes that heart disease is her greatest health threat. In fact, 90 percent of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease.
“Women are afraid to say things about heart disease because we work so hard to be the caretakers, to be strong, to not just take care of our family but to take care of everyone around us,” Tatham says. “So many times I think that we feel that if we said something about it, it would show that we were weak.”
During American Heart Month this February, we can stop our No. 1 killer together by sharing the truth. We can be the difference between life and death. Uncover the truth about heart disease and make ending it a reality at www.GoRedForWomen.org.
Warm regards,
Kevin D. Harker
Executive Vice President, Midwest Affiliate
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